Fairy Tail New Era Volume 2
by 4fireking
Summary: The Sequel to Fairy Tail New Era Volume 1. Cooro is now a member of Fairy Tail and was doing his first Fairy Tail job when Khara ordered him and Baba to fight an assassin. Finding out Cooro is really a part of Fairy Tail, all members of the mansion attack him. How will Cooro survive to get to school tomorrow?
1. Chapter 1

**Hello. I bet you're confused why I have volumes in this story? Well, it was originally fifty-three chapters but I've created so many stories I wanted to distinguish the ones that are most important to me. And some of the character descriptions were from wikia and I decided to change that. Enjoy. **

Cooro was now a butler of Lady Khara's mansion. And to everyone's surprise, he was really good at his job. His jobs were perpetual—having to clean the tapestries, having to clean the silverware, cleaning the furniture, and help with the cooking—each and every one he excelled at like he excelled with his school grades.

Cooro met all the maids as he was searching through the mansion. But no matter how many he looked at he couldn't find one with a singular appearance to the one the ex-Fairy Tail member mentioned. A wife was a woman who you swear an oath to; they were in no way related to their suitors.

" How am I going to find that woman before tomorrow morning?" Cooro thought while he continued roaming the halls looking for the wife. " And what's the deal with this house? It will take me days to find everything here, and I only have until tomorrow to get to school. I will not be tardy. Never have and I never will. AND NO ONE'S GOING TO STOP M—"

" Excuse me," a maid said behind Cooro. Cooro shuddered at the sound of her voice and stood perfectly still like he was a statue. " Are you the new butler of Miss Khara? I'm Myra Triwind."

" Triwind? Wait, that old mans' last name was Triwind. Maybe she's the Triwind I've been looking for."

Cooro turned around and looked at the woman standing before him. And he was both surprised and scared seeing her. She was a cherry-red haired maid wearing the maid uniform. Her eyes were the color scarlet and reminded Cooro of the feathers of a phoenix.

_" She used to be a member of Fairy Tail? She's just as scary as me."_

" We get many people trying to become butlers around here," Myra said in a voice that made Cooro's throat become dry. Tell me, what would someone like you be doing here? Are you perhaps a spy trying to assassinate Lady Khara?"

" No! I-I…." Cooro looked behind his back and behind Myra's back to make sure there wasn't anyone but them in the halls. Cooro then grabbed the frills of Myra's hair and pulled her head down. " I'm looking for someone. She's the wife of Hyde Triwind."

" Hyde Triwind? Hydey actually sent someone out looking for me?"

" Wait, you mean to tell me you're his wife?"

" Yes. And not only is he endangering me but he's also endangering you sending you after me." Myra's eyes shined with stars as she stared flamboyantly at the ceiling. " But I guess it's that part of him that I love. Oh Hyde, where are you my Romeo? Love looks not with my eyes, but with my mind, And therefore I am winged Cupid painted blind."

_" I was wrong. She's crazy not scary. She's basically the perfect member of Fairy Tail."_

Myra's eyes finally stopped twinkling with stars and she stared at Cooro with her serious eyes. This time she grabbed Cooro's head and pulled his head down.

" Look, it's not safe here. You have to get out of here while you still can. I've been watching you and Lady Khara. I think Lady Khara's starting to like you. And whatever Lady Khara wants Lady Khara always gets."

Cooro and Myra heard a noise heading towards them. It sounded like it was frolicking towards them. Myra was filled with anxiety. She grabbed Cooro's shoulders, squeezed them, turning his body around and she pushed him away.

" Get out of here while you still can. Lady Khara's not a little girl. She's not even human. As far as she's concerned…we're nothing but dolls to her."

" Wait, what?"

" Run!"

Cooro and Myra reached the end of the hall. Myra opened the door for Cooro and pushed him through the door. She then slammed the door on Cooro directly on his face. Cooro pondered the events that just happened, turned around, and he "Gasp!" seeing Lady Khara standing behind him.

" Ah!"

Cooro was scared of Lady Khara. The very sight of her made him antsy and fearful. Cooro was about to turn around and open the door to get away from Lady Khara, but she stopped him as she touched his right cheek—her hands were so warm, moist they relieved all his anxiety.

" Is there something wrong with you, Cooro?" Khara asked in her sweet voice. " You seem very skittish."

" What?" Cooro gawked at Khara. " Don't be ridiculous. There's nothing wrong with me. You just surprised me that's all."

" Good. By the way, it's lunchtime. Usually I order my maids to have a twenty minute lunch break together, but you can join me and the rest of my servants in my lunch quarters."

" Er, yeah, I can join you. But where is the lunch quarters?"

" Oh, silly me. I forgot you're new around here. I forgot I still have much to teach you. Just follow me. I'll lead the way."

XXX

Cooro sat with all seven of Khara's servants: Babo, EO, Hex, Samba, Sano, Ox, and Junichi. Cooro had to sit beside Babo which was bad because they both despised each other. Cooro smacked Babo's left elbow and Babo smacked Cooro's right elbow.

The food being served was soup. What they were having was a delicious Mediterranean-style fish soup known as bouillabaisse. Cooro looked at his more as a bisque, rich , thick, creamy soup which was puréed until smooth; chowder is similar by the chunks of fish in it.

Khara wasn't with them at the type. She was busy getting ready for lunch. Since she wasn't there, Babo had an opportune moment to harrier Cooro. He stretched his hand out and pushed Cooro's soup down. It oozed everywhere on the table.

" Aw, whoops," Babo laughed. " I'm sorry. I didn't mean to knock your soup. My hand just slipped."

" That's too bad," Cooro said as she stared down at his spilled soup. " I really wanted to have some. But I guess I can't help it if your hand slipped."

The doors to the room soon opened and Lady Khara walked inside. At the sight of her presence everyone stood up, bowed to her, and stayed that way while she walked to her chair. She still looked like a porcelain doll, but she wore a white gown and her gray hair cascaded down her head.

" Welcome, Lady Khara," all seven of her servants said in unison.

" Thank you," Khara smiled. " It's nice to be around all of you—"

Khara staggered. She was staring at Cooro and Babo. Cooro raised Babo's soup bowl over Babo's head and dripped the soup on his afro hair. The soup dripped down his hair and dripped all over his face. All six other servants staggered at the site of Babo with soup all over his face.

" Whoops. It seemed like my hand slipped as well," Cooro said while he poured the soup over Babo's head. " But hey, stuff happens, right?"

Babo didn't say anything to Cooro. He just stood up while he was boiling with anger, wiped the soup off his face, and turned around and grabbed Cooro's scarf still wrapped around his neck. Babo raised his other hand and made a fist out of it.

" I'm going to kill you—"

" Babo!" Khara shouted. Babo stopped at the sound of Khara's voice. He staggered and turned his head to Khara. " I was going to leave this until after lunch but since you two are done anyways, I'll need you to do a little something for me."

" Yes. What do you want from me, Lady Khara?"

" I'm looking for a key. There's a store not too far from here that sells Celestial Keys. Why don't you and Cooro go out and get that key for me."

" Yes. It will be done, Lady Khara." Babo tugged on Cooro's scarf and pulled him with him out of the door. " Come on, worthless, let's get a move on."

Babo and Cooro were both gone. Everyone else of Khara's servants just ignored them and continued eating their soups. But Khara, the mastermind behind the mansion, she smirked.

" Finally, I get to see just what my new servant is made of."

XXX

On the way to the store, Babo and Cooro were being attacked. It was another man trying to assassinate Lady Khara. He carried a rapier, was dark-skinned, shirtless and wore just red jeans on his legs. The assassin battled Babo while Cooro watched on the sidelines.

It was a very short battle between Babo and the unnamed assassin. The assassin tried stabbing his rapier straight into Babo's head, but Babo swatted it away with his right hand and punched the assassin's jaw with his left hand. The moment his fist hit the assassin did he epically fall on the floor.

" Is he done?" Cooro asked Babo.

" He is, no thanks to you," Babo replied. " What were you doing. You should have been there for me. What were you doing just standing there watching? Wait until I tell Lady Khara about this."

" Ha. That's funny. Kneeling down to a little girl? What are you one of her dolls?"

" Why you! If you're to serve Lady Khara you will treat her with the utmost respect!"

" Sorry, but I don't work for anyone. Why would I kneel to a girl like her?"

" Why you! How dare you bark to Lady Khara in that tone, naïve! If you're not here to serve Lady Khara then why are you here?"

Cooro flicked his scarf. He placed both his hands in his pockets, looked his head down, and he laughed under his breath. His laughing notably irritated Babo as the dark-skinned man clenched both his teeth and mashed his teeth together.

" Isn't it obvious. I'm a member of Fairy Tail. I'm here to get one of your maids. And now that I know which one I'm looking for, I plan on sneaking her out of there. Sorry, but I plan to do that before the end of the day."

Cooro flicked his scarf a second time and walked towards Babo. He walked past Babo without a moment to stop. Babo continued to mash his teeth together and growled under his breath, only all the anger in him quickly went away and he laughed.

" I knew there was a reason why I hated you so much. So you're really a member of Fairy Tail? Then I guess I'm going to have too—" Babo's afro's shape changed. It changed into a conically-shaped drill and spinned around. " Kill you. And that my friend is legit. Diver Magic!"

Babo had very strong legs. He jumped high into the air nearly three feet off the ground and fell towards the ground with his head facing the dirt. When his head touched the ground, it drilled straight through and he went under the ground.

Cooro didn't notice Babo as he ignored him and walked back towards the mansion. Only while he was walking, Babo with his cone-shaped hair emerged from the ground and struck Cooro with his drill. His drill went straight into Cooro's chest, making a small hole in his skin, and he fell back from the drill.

" Ack!" Cooro spat blood from his mouth after being striked by the drill. " Where did he come from?"

Babo grabbed Cooro by his scarf and yanked him to his conically shaped hair. Under his hair, Babo was smiling wickedly into Cooro's eyes. " Like me doo? I'm a master at Diver Magic. My magic is I can change my hair into a drill. And now…" Babo's drill spinned around as he prepared to strike it into Cooro's head. Cooro was paralysed and dizzy from the last strike Babo used on him. He could only watch as Babo was about to kill him. " I'm going to put my drill straight through your head. "

Cooro held on to the drill for dear life. It was hard though. Blood was gushing out of his arm as the sharp drill went right through his flesh. Cooro however stood strong, used his foot as leverage to keep his balance, and pushed himself forward as he pushed Babo off of him.

" Ack!" Cooro spat as he looked at his bleeding hands. " That hurt. My hands…their all numb. I-I can't move them."

" Oh, so you can't move your fingers, eh?" Babo laughed while he looked at Cooro bleeding from his hands. " Ain't that a darn shame. It's really too bad. But that's what you get when you defy Lady Khara. But you can repay here with your lif—"

Something swooped down behind Babo and striked him from behind. His pain sounded like a blue whale that travailed the baby of a howling monkey. After screaming he fell on the ground. Above him was the cat Gia. Although it was too Cooro's utmost shock that Gia had wings on her back and was flying above Cooro.

" What's going on? Cooro asked.

" Hi there, Cooro," Gia waved to Cooro. It was too his shock that she could talk.

" Y-you can talk?"

" Of course I can talk. All cats can talk. I'm surprised you haven't figured it out yet. Hehe."

" Wait, if you can talk, then why didn't you say anything to me before?"

" Well, you would be scared of me. You seemed a little paranoid when I first met you. Remember, you were punching a giant mirror. Why did you punch that mirror by the way?"

" I find my own reflection to be horrid. The very sight of my face makes me abhorrent. If I could, I would break every mirror in the world so nobody can see what they really look like."

" Oh, the calamity. Anyways, maybe I should tell you a little bit about myself. I was raised in an egg by a kind man who nursed me since I was an egg. But that farmer threw me away because he got married to a woman who hated cats. When I left I became a stray. After being a stray for a year, I finally returned to the house that shut me out. That's when I found out that they had a child together. I felt so unloved and wandered the streets believing there was nothing for me, but that's when I met you, Cooro. You helped me."

" Right. And what exactly did I do again?"

" You rescued me, you goof. You kept bringing me milk and fish when I was hungry and thirsty." Gia made the cutest face known to mankind. Her eyes popped out, shaked, and she bit her lower lip. " You took care of me. I want to be your friend."

" Friend. I don't know about that. I don't really want to be friends with anyone."

" That's too bad," Babo laughed. Cooro turned around and saw how Babo was back on his feet. " Your arrival was full of nascent. In a few years we could've actually been friends. But now that you disobeyed Lady Khara's trust, I'm afraid I'm going to have to kill you."

Babo grabbed his afro hair with his left hand and pulled on it. He made giant crying noises while pulling on his hair. He then ripped a ball of his hair out, crying, and held it for Cooro to see.

" Are you mad?" Cooro asked. " Why did you pull on your own hair, idiot?"

" I do things diligently for Lady Khara. She's everything to me. And I'll get rid of anyone who stands in her way."

A giant brown circle illuminated out of Babo's hand. The hair in his hand then turned into a drill like the hair on his head.

" H-how are you able to do that?" Cooro gasped.

" What, did you really think it was only the hair on my head that could transform into a drill? So long as it's my own hair, I can create a drill out of it. Like this."

Babo's drill turned back into a pile of hair. With one blow from his mouth, the hair blew too Cooro and looked like it was just going to blow away from him. However, a giant brown circle illuminated from the hair and it transformed into a small drill.

" Ah!" Cooro screamed. He ducked down and the drill zoomed past him. He looked back and saw the drill drilling through the dirt. " That ground could've been my head. I got to be more careful around this guy."

" You're probably thinking you can dodge my attack," Babo said too Cooro. " But how can you dodge something that you can't even see?"

Just like before the hairdo on Babo's afro head started spinning around as it became a giant drill. Babo jumped into the air and fell towards the ground. His head ripped through the ground and Babo travelled underground. Unseen by either Cooro or Gia's eyes, they both stood by each other's backs.

" It will be nearly impossible to see him with your eyes, Cooro," Gia said to Cooro. " You'll have to rely on your other senses."

" My other senses? What kind of other senses?"

"Your ears of course. You could also work by using your nose. But it wouldn't be as good as your ears—Cooro!"

Gia flew too Cooro and her paws to lift him up by his armpits. They were both flying above the ground just when Babo emerged under them. Gia then flew down and let go of Cooro as he turned back to Babo. There were many things peculiar about Babo now. Around his torso was a ring of drills, in both his palms were one drill each, and his head was completely bald.

" You idiot!" Cooro exclaimed. " You cut off your own hair!"

" Not too worry," Babo said back to Cooro. " This is why I always carry a spare." Babo used his mouth to bite something in his tribal shirt and pulled it out. The thing he took out was an afro wig. Babo lifted the wig above his head placed it on his head. " Not too shabby, wouldn't you agree?"

" That thing was a wig? What a waste of Jewels. "

"Say what you want. I used a knife in my pants that helped me cut off my beautiful afro hair so I could use it to make my beautiful drills. But that's not all. I also used to have much longer hair, but cut it in half and kept it with me for safe keeping. Pretty smart thinking, wouldn't you agree?"

" That's it. I'm going taking you dow—"

" Let me handle this, Cooro," Gia said. " I'll show you just how powerful I am."

" Come at me if you want. I'll make you experience exquisite agony."

Gia dashed at Babo with her wings spread out. As she was flying her wings turned into metal. Babo and Gia clashed. Babo attacked with the drills in his hands, but Gia countered by thrashing her wings at him. Sparks came out as both metal clashed together.

" They're both so fast," Cooro thought while watching Gia and Cooro fight. " They're on a completely different level than me. I hate to admit it, but I'm outmatched by both of them. If only I had some kind of magic."

Babo and Gia continued clashing their weapons together. Gia got rid of her wings, fell on the ground when he nearly slashed her, and flew back up as a green circle of light illuminated from her back and wings sprouted out. Gia circled around Babo and slashed at him with her metal wings. Wounds were made around Babo and were bleeding where he was slashed, but the callus part of his tissue healed restored him.

" How are you able to recover that quickly?" Gia asked while she slashed at Babo.

" It's simple. There are Four Types of Magic: Caster, Holder, Lost, and Uncategorized. Yours kitty is a Caster Magic called Aera. Lady Khara gives all us servants a special kind of Lost Magic. Mine is I can recover quickly. And now…"

Babo's drills grew larger around Babo's waist. The drills hit Gia. Luckily she was able to fold her wings around her chest and his drills bounced off her wings. Babo swat the cat away using his drills.

" Gia!" Cooro shouted watching Gia fall down.

" Ha," Babo laughed. " I'm glad she's down. That cat was absolutely disgusting."

" Hey, don't talk to animals like that when I'm around!"

" Ha. What, are you some kind of animal lover? But I have something I'd like to tell you. Why bother caring for animals? They are nothing but sticky, disgusting, revolting little being—"

" Shut up!"

Cooro charged at Babo without thinking. The only thing he thought about was how much he wanted to protect Gia. Even though he knew he had no magic, no power, and was nothing but a weakling, he had the valor to protect the only person he cared about.

" Ha, moron."

Babo smacked Cooro away with the back of his wrist. The wrist wasn't as powerful as his drills, but it pushed Cooro away. Cooro fell once; he hit his head. Cooro rolled on the dirt and hit his head twice; snapped his right leg. And he rolled twice, felt his right arm being broken. Cooro finally stopped rolling.

Cooro was a wreck. He only had one moving arm and leg as his others were temporarily dislodged. And Cooro was suffering agony—no, torture—torture that abolished the very essence of his soul. Cooro could only pant while Babo walked towards him. Babo stepped on Cooro's chest and stared wickedly into his eyes.

" I'll give you one last chance. Swear your loyalty too Lady Khara or I'll be forced to kill you where you stand. What will it be?"

" No, I'll never become a loyal dog to her like him," Cooro thought while he cringed from his broken bones. " I'll just tell him I'll join him. Even if it's a lie it will buy me some time so I may become strong enough to beat them."

As Cooro lifted his head he saw Gia lying before him. She was hurt, bleeding, and weakly breathing. Her wings faded from her back as Cooro could slowly feel she was losing strength. He knew what he had to do."

" Okay, okay, I swear. I swear…" Cooro's blood pressure began to boil. While looking at Babo, he became enraged. "I will never join Khara! I will die a member of Fairy Tail!"

With that said, Babo's drills started turning around at an incredible speed, and they fell down towards Cooro about to rip through his flesh. " You're a fool!"

Cooro only had a few short seconds to live. With the drills falling down on him, a great power surged inside of him. That power was the power of magic. And with it, something strange happened too Cooro's left arm.

Cooro's hand started too morph. It became a weapon. Small, cylindrical, silver cannon appeared over his hand. The cannon began to be engulfed with bright green light. Babo could only stare as a bright green ball was fired from his cannon and hit Babo directly.

" Guah!"

Babo was pushed back and fell into the ground. In just one shot from Cooro's cannon he was defeated. Remembering how Babo basked about how powerful he was and how he hated cats, it felt good when the cannon hit him. However, Cooro was surprised by his magic. What was it? And how could it be used?

" W-what is this? This power…what does it mean?"


	2. Chapter 2

Lady Khara waited for Cooro and Babo to return while she sat on a couch with the rest of her servants: EO, Hex, Samba, Sano, and Junichi. After waiting for three hours for him to return Lady Khara finally dispatched Ox to go out and search for them.

"What do you think is taking them so long, Lady Khara?" Hex as he/she stared silently waiting for them to return.

"Yes, it is quite odd for Babo to miss out on dinner," EO said while she too stood silently waiting for them to return.

Finally, Ox appeared. He appeared through the door. He looked worried, ran with great pace and headed straight for Lady Khara. When he reached her he got on his knees and kicked her legs. But Khara kicked Ox as she found him to be revolting.

" Tell me, Ox, where are my other subjects?"

" Ox," Ox said to Lady Khara. "Ox. Ox. Ox, Ox, OX! OX!"

"I see. I stipulated he would be my butler, but I never thought he'd be a tardy butler." Khara closed her eyes and used her hands to swish her grey hair. " I guess we'll have to teach him a lesson. EO, Sano, find our new butler. If he is incompliant to be joining us, you have my permission to do with him as you wish."

" Yes, Lady Khara," EO said.

" Umm, are you sure I should really be doing this, Lady Khara?" Sano asked. " I'm not sure I'm best fitting for the job—"

Lady Khara surprised Sano. She got off her couch and ran up to Sano and hugged him around his torso. Sano was surprised by Khara's bold act and his cheeks tinted red.

" I know you can do it, Sano. You are my light of day. You're also the glitz that lights my day. And I know out of every one of my servants you're the one who loves me the most, Sano. So, will you do this teensy little errand for me?"

" Yes, Lady Khara. I will get on it right away."

Both EO and Sano rushed out the room and ran out the door searching for Cooro. While they did, Khara laughed too herself and held her hands over her eyes.

XXX

Cooro wandered through the plains of the desert looking for sanctuary. Cooro carried the wounded cat Gia with both his hands. But after wandering through dunes, hills, and the skeletons of dead buzzards of Khara's landscape. All water seemed to be lost from evapotranspiration as there was nothing he could do to help Gia was trying to find shelter for her.

" I'm sorry, Gia," Cooro said while he carried Gia. " I'm sorry I wasn't able to protect you. If only I was strong enough to protect you. "

" Don't be so hard on yourself , Cooro," Gia said weakly while she was being carried by Cooro. " I should be the one saying that too you."

" B-but you're injured. You're injured because of me."

" Yes, but I'm glad I was able to help you. I've rather grown fond of you, Cooro. How you pet me, how you feed me, I would benefit being your pet."

" Heh. You're surprisingly talkative despite your injury. And as long as we both may live, I will be your master until the end of time. And as your master, I have something I need to show you."

Cooro pulled out a small notebook. The leather of the notebook was red as there was also a scaly pink heart on the cover. Cooro opened the notebook and a picture of his hometown Rudy Gloss City.

" This here is a Memory Transportation Book. It can teleport you anywhere you've been before. However, it can only be used once a day. I can send you back to the safety of my house. I however will stay here as I still have urgent matters to attend too. "

" No!" Gia swat the book away with her paws. She then reached her paws around Cooro's scarf and squeezed it with her paws. " I want to stay with you! What kind of pet would I be if I wasn't besides my master?"

" Gia, a-are you sure about this? It wouldn't be easy staying around someone like me."

" Of course I'm sure. I will stay beside you for as long as I live, master."

" Okay. I will look after you as always, Gi—"

From behind a giant beam of energy came out and hit Cooro behind his back. Cooro fell when he was hit, however he managed to keep Gia safe and got back up again. As Cooro turned around he saw the unwavering, calm face of EO standing behind him.

" So, you were a spy for Fairy Tail all along?" EO said while she walked closed towards Cooro and Cooro stepped back. " That's such a pity. Lady Khara stipulated that she would turn you into a great butler. But if you're not compliant with Lady Khara's orders, then I have no choice but to kill you."

" Well, if it isn't the crazy lady whose obsessed with crusted poo." Cooro smirked when he looked at her. " Yes, I'm a member of Fairy Tail. And beating scum like you who're people's guard dogs should be no problem. It's a good thing there's only one of them. Once I find a secluded place to hide Gia, I'll take her down—"

" Flashbang!"

Cooro saw a small metal object being thrown over his head. The object soon exploded and bright light blinded him. Cooro quickly covered his eyes with his left hand and covered Gia's eyes with his right hand. Even though Cooro couldn't see, he could still heard the rumbling sound of footsteps charging towards him.

" What is going on—"

Cooro was pushed by the body of a body-builder. Cooro landed on his leg, the one that was bruised earlier, and he cried in agony as it felt the pressure of the ground. Cooro then turned around to see who pushed him now that the light had faded. He was daunted seeing the person standing before him too be Sano who he reckoned was his friend until he pushed him.

" I had no idea you were a member of Fairy Tail, Cooro," Sano said to Cooro. " It's too bad you turned out to be nothing more than a spy. I thought we could have a reading session like that time on the slab after Lady Khara went to sleep, but now I'm afraid that session will never come again."

" Sano, don't do this," Cooro said. " You don't have to do everything that brat tells you. You have your own mind. You can be anything you want to b—"

"Enough!" Sano pulled on the sleeves of his black clothes. In his hands the sleeves turned into bright green grenade. Sano pulled the pin of the grenade and raised it behind his back. "I will never permit you to say ill of my lordship! Grenade!"

Sano threw the grenade two feet ahead of Cooro. Cooro, even though one of his legs was trashed, he got off the ground and ran as fast as he could away from the grenade. The grenade exploded and the blast pushed Cooro back. While he was flying, a bright green beam was unleashed from EO's head and pushed Cooro into a giant rock that was sticking out of the dirt.

" Isn't it marvelous, Sano?" EO chuckled as her head glowed bright green. " It's amazing watching people who talk mean of Lady Khara suffer. Oh, I'm going to finish him off with my magic that transforms my emotions into magical blasts."

" No." Sano walked ahead of EO and smacked her hand behind her bald head. " I'll be the one who will destroy Cooro and bring back Lady Khara's good reputation. I'll do it with my magic of transforming my clothes into bombs."

Sano grabbed another piece of his sleeves that was already teared, teared another piece, and he squeezed it in his hand. His hand glowed with bright white light. When he opened his hand a small time bomb was in his hand. Only five seconds were left on the clock.

" This is the end for you, Cooro! No one will stand in Lady Khara's way!"

Sano threw the time bomb straight towards Cooro. The time bomb landed in front of his face. With the clock about to reach zero—tick-tock, tick-tock, Cooro knew just one thing:

" I'm going to die."

Only four seconds left on the clock. Tick-tock, tick-tock. From past experience Cooro realized that Sano's magic was not to be rifled with. There were only two seconds left on the clock. Tick-tock, tick-tock. At this moment, Cooro could only think of one thing.

" Gia, you got to go!" Cooro shouted at his small feline wingless pet. " If one of us is going to make it out of this alive it has to be you. "

" I'm not leaving you, Cooro," Gia said back to Cooro.

" I wasn't asking you."

Cooro used all the arm strength he had left to throw Gia behind him. He threw her far but not high. He could see her tiny body as it zoomed past him and landed on a hill in the oasis. Cooro felt relieved to see Gia alright and smiled.

" At least one of us needs to make it out of her alive. What kind of master would I be if I couldn't take care of my pets? Good luck wherever life leads you, Gi—"

It had been well past five seconds. The time bomb however did not go off. Cooro didn't know why it didn't go off, but he used his adrenaline as stimulus to help him get off the ground and ran, nearly falling, towards where he threw Gia.

" Sano, what is wrong with you?" EO screamed behind Cooro's back. " You dare defy Lady Khara's orders and help this oaf escape?"

" Of course not," Sano replied. " That last bomb I threw just turned out to be a dub, that's all."

"Well the next one you use better work, unless of course you want me to tell Lady Khara about your failure to follow orders."

" No. I promise you my bombs will go off next time. Just please don't tell Lady Khara about this."

Sano didn't have any intentions of hurting poor Cooro, but that didn't mean he wasn't going too. Too his surprise, Cooro fell into a dune without paying close attention where he was running. As he watched Cooro roll down the dune, he start to sensate memories of his past.

" Get away from that kid. He's infected."

" Keep him away from our children. He bears the mark of the Tӓrtus in his eyes."

" That mark is the mark of the devils. It's incurable and if he touches our kids with it they too will die."

Thinking about all the torture he suffered and how he had a mark on his eye that couldn't even spread to people close to him, he remembered what his master Lady Khara had said to him.

" Are you alright? I can save you. I can get rid of that pesky disease in your eye before it completely destroys you. But in return I need you to become a servant of mine. So, what do you say?"

Sano walked towards the dune. He pulled six pieces of fabric from his clothes. As he did he squeezed them and six grenades came out. Sano finally reached the dune and saw Cooro trying to walk out of it.

" Lady Khara was there for me then and she is here for me now. I'm sorry about this, Cooro, but I just can't fall here after everything she's done for me." Sano dropped five of his grenades while holding one in his hand, and he threw the grenade. " Grenade!"'

The grenade however was thrown above Cooro and exploded in midair. Sano picked up another grenade, pulled its pin, and threw it at Cooro. " Grenade!"

The grenade however was thrown too far ahead of Cooro and exploded on the top of the dune. EO, who was watching Sano miss his target, became angry. And when she was angry, her bald head glowed bright red. Sano however didn't see it and picked up his other four grenades.

" Grenade! Grenade! Grenade! Grenade!"

Sano tossed the grenade's everywhere. One was thrown far left of Cooro. Another was thrown far right of Cooro. And one that also was thrown far left of Cooro. All three exploded and missed Cooro. However, there was one that rolled behind Cooro and exploded, and it blew Cooro away as it burned his back.

" Ah!" Cooro screamed in agony after he was struck by the grenade.

" I truly am sorry, Cooro. But I-I just don't want to go back to the way things were. I don't want to be homeless, unloved, and completely hated. I-I just want to be in Lady Khara's care." Watching Cooro cry made Sano cry. As he did, teardrop fell down his right eye. " It's the only place I belong in."

Sano could remember everything about his past visually. He remembered how he would sit in an abandoned house, alone, cold, and crying his eyes out waiting for someone to rescue him. But no one in his village came for him. He just wanted to be loved. But no one ever loved him. The only comfort he had was reading books. That was until the day Lady Khara showed up. He could still remember the words she said to him.

" Hey, are you alone?"

" Alone? Y-yes. It's only me and my books. But aren't you afraid of me?"

" Not at all. I see you have the mark of Tӓrtus though. I can help you. If you come with me, I can cure you of your plague .In exchange, you'll become my servant."

" Will there be people there who will love me?"

" Of course. They'll remember you sentimentally. But while you're my servant, you'll refer to me as Lady Khara."

" I love Lady Khara, even if it all seems one sided. I wish she could look at me, not as a servant, but as someone who would give up his life to see her smile."

It didn't look like Cooro was going to be getting up, which was good. Sano didn't intend on killing Cooro. He and Cooro shared mutual bonds when it came to books. He only wanted to faze Cooro long enough for the scarf wearing boy to give up and journey back to his home.

" Glad that's over. Now I can finally go hom—"

It was too Sano's surprise, horror that Cooro was able to stand up again. Cooro limply journeyed up the hill trying to reach Gia. Surprised, Sano ripped off another piece of his sleeves fabric and it transformed into a bomb, only he didn't get to detonate it because EO pushed him down. Looking up her head looked like a volcano about to erupt.

" You've tested my patience for too long, Sano! It's time you give someone disciplined a chance. Emotion Magic: Magma Wave!"

Sano knew nothing good would come from EO. And he was right. A beam made out of made was fired from her bald head. The magma in her beam transformed into a puddle of magma and was about to rain over Cooro and melt him alive.

" Cooro, no!"

Sano slide down the sand dune hoping to save Cooro from being burned alive. He carried the time bomb in his hand that had only three seconds left on the clock. When Sano finally got in front of Cooro, he pushed him to the ground and threw the time bomb over both their heads.

Boom!

The time bomb exploded. As it did, the magma that was about to fall on Cooro dripped everywhere, except it didn't land on Cooro or Sano. A puddle of magma surrounded both Cooro and Sano.

Cooro was mesmerized with Sano's boldness. The sight of it made him speechless. He however grabbed Sano's right shoulder.

" Sano….y-you saved me?"

" Don't flatter yourself," Sano replied. " Lady Khara told us we were supposed to bring you in alive so she could train you to be diligent. Saving you has nothing to do with me liking you or anything."

" Sano!" Khara shouted on the top of the dune. Her head was still red and boiling like a volcano. " You traitor! Wait until I tell Lady Khara about this! She'll be heartbroken to see her favorite servant failed to follow orders!"

" No! Please, don't tell Lady Khara about this. She'll be devastated."

" The choice is up to you. Either kill this oaf right now or I will tell Lady Khara about this."

Sano really didn't want to hurt Cooro. The only thing stopping him from throwing a bomb at EO was how she had him by a loose thread. Trying his hardest not to let everyone down, Sano teared a piece of his sleeves off. The sleeve transformed into a grenade in his hands.

Cooro ignored Sano and rubbed his chin as he pondered to himself. " Let's see. How was I able to use that move from before? Oh yeah."

Cooro's left hand glowed green as it turned into a small cannon. Cooro stared at Sano and raised the cannon above his head. And while he was doing that, Sano hesitantly held the pin of his grenade but didn't pull it and KO's head glowed blue from glee.

" That's a good boy, Sano. While this oaf's attention is too focused on you, I'll freeze him with my freeze ray. That boy won't even see it coming—"

" Just what do you think you're doing baldy?"

EO shuddered at the sound of Cooro's voice. Cooro spun around and turned to EO. In a flash, a small green ball of light that looked like a cannonball fired towards her. Scared, EO had to fire her beam immediately. She slowed the ball down, but she didn't have enough power to push it all the way back.

"Kanellos, I order you to attack this stupid girl, now!"

" It's about time you called for my help, Cooro. I was starting to think you were going to ignore me for the rest of your life."

Cooro's body glowed with light. When the light faded Kanellos the dog-eared man stood before Sano. Kanellos acted quickly by taking out a dozen seeds from his shirt. After tossing the seeds in his palm, Kanellos threw them into the sky.

"Tree Spurt!"

The seeds in the air grew into trees. The trees fell from the sky and prepared to fall on EO. Four trees landed around her and trapped her, and the last tree fell on her. EO didn't die from the tree falling on her because her bone structure was twice as inextirpable as any bones in the human body. One thing was clear. EO was defeated.

Kanellos became surrounded by a veil of white light. When the light cleared Cooro was standing before Sano, perfectly still, and looked rather heroic in his eyes. The thing Sano couldn't believe was how he attacked EO before he attacked him when he was standing right before him.

" I just don't get it. How did he know I wasn't going to attack him? It just doesn't make any sense." Sano tapped on Cooro's right shoulder. Cooro didn't turn his head and just stood at the trees above the dune. " Hey, just now you knew I wasn't going to attack you. You needed full attention to attack her like that. But how did you know I wasn't going to attack you?"

Cooro turned his head to Sano, tilted his head to the left, said, " What are you talking about? It's because we're friends, aren't we?"

" F-friends?" The sound of Cooro's words made Sano both happy and sad. His eyes swelled up with tears and they dripped with tears of joy. " Yeah, we're friends."


	3. Chapter 3

Khara's patience was growing very thin. With every second that passed she wondered more and more where Sano and EO were and what was taking them so long to find Cooro. Khara usually put up a cutesy face when she was around her subjects, but her true nature was of a violent tiger.

" Hex, give me my whip!" Khara shouted to her hermaphrodite subordinate. Hex gave Khara her long whip that was made out of sharp metal. " Ox, show me your back!" Ox grabbed his clothes and pulled it out for Lady Khara. On his back were multiple scars all over his body. " I can't take this anymore!"

Khara whipped at Ox's back. Ox took no joy in being whipped, but was obedient to everything that his lady told him to do. Khara whipped him with everything she had—whip, whip, whip, whip—and with every whip she did a large smile spread on her face.

" Nobody defies my orders! No one!"

" O' Lady Khara," Samba said in blissful voice. " Samba, samba, samba. I have something I want to tell you. Samba, samba, samba."

XXX

" You're so cute," Sano said in a cute voice to Cooro's cat Gia. " Who's a cute cat? Who's a cute cat? Yes you are. Yes you are."

" Cooro, save me!" Gia yelled trying to get Cooro's attention.

" Sorry, but I'm a little busy right now," Cooro replied.

Cooro, Gia, and Sano were able to find a cave made entirely out of sand. The sand cave was being used as their hideout. Cooro was wearing his Gale-Force Reading Glasses and used his Light Pen. With his quick reading speed and pen that can create a map out of anything, he drawed a map of the outside of Khara's mansion and one of the inside of her mansion.

" Hmmmm." Cooro used two pens. One was yellow and one was red. The yellow one was used to draw a map and the red one was used to draw him, Sano, and Gia. " Let's see. Her men are pretty strong, but maybe we can gang up on each of them one by one. Sano you should take the—ack!"

Cooro collapsed. He was overworked; suffering from injuries from his previous battles, and could not take the pain anymore. As he did, Sano and Gia rushed towards him. Sano ran while Gia used her Aera magic to keep her wings up and flew over him.

" Cooro, are you okay?" Sano asked.

" Please don't die on us, Cooro," Gia said. " What's wrong with him?"

" It must be his injuries. Before he fought us he did fight Babo. And Babo's the sneakiest one in our group. Please me and EO did rough him up a little in our last battle. I'm surprised he was still able to stand."

" He must've thought writing would make him recover faster."

Sano thought about that as well. And as he did, he smiled. " Silly Cooro. It doesn't work like that. Here."

Sano teared a piece of his sleeves. In his hand his sleeve turned into a different kind of bomb. It looked more like a small healing tank than a bomb with a small bomb on the top where a hatch sealed it up. When Sano touched Cooro with the bomb, the thank grew three times his size and it sucked him in. Cooro just stood in place in front of Sano and Gia, floating, surrounded by pink liquids.

" This is my Heal Bomb. It will heal Cooro until he's at full health. But there's no way of getting it open except for when it explodes. It needs to wait five hours before that happens. And if it's broken from the outside, Cooro will die."

" This is bad," Gia said in a quiet voice that she thought Sano couldn't hear, but he turned to her as he heard what she said. " Surely that ladies dogs must know you're missing. They'll probably send out a search party looking for Cooro. What are we going to do if they find us?"

" Don't worry about it. They must know Babo was defeated by Cooro, but they don't know what happened between EO and me. I'll just go back and tell them I defeated Ian, only he took EO's life in the battle."

" Are you sure it's safe to go back by yourself, Sano? Maybe I should go with you."

" No. I need you to stay here and watch Cooro. You're his friend, right? He'll need someone to keep people away from finding him."

" Right. We wouldn't want unwanted guests showing up now would we. Take care, Sano."

" Bye."

" Ciao."

Sano did as he said and headed back towards Khara's mansion. A gentle breeze blew behind him. Little did he know, something bad was about to happen to him.

XXX

After thirty minutes had passed, Sano finally reached Khara's mansion. He opened the door and walked inside to the sound of utter silence.

" I'm home," Sano called when he walked through the door. However, nobody answered him when he walked in. " That's weird. Where did everybody run off too?"

Junichi then showed up. The rabbit-shirk man walked across from Sano and didn't appear to recognize him. While he was walking, he rubbed his rabbit whiskers.

" Hey, Junichi, it's me, Sano."

" Sano?" Junichi stopped walking and turned to Sano. A smile appeared on Junichi's face as he showed Sano his giant buck rabbit teeth. " Oh, it's you, Sano. Where have you been?"

" Sorry. EO was defeated. But I did manage to defeat that Fairy Tail spy. He won't be showing up here anytime soon."

" Isn't that just grand. Hey, are you by any chance thirsty, Sano?"

" I do feel a little bit parched. "

" Great. I have tea ready. Would you like any?"

" Why that sounds lovely. But what's gotten into you, Junichi? You usually don't care about how others are feeling except for yourself."

" Oh, I just really wanted to see you is all. Is that a problem?"

" Not that I'm aware of. Okay, show me that tea."

" Terrific. Follow me."

Junichi got on all four of his legs like a rabbit and hopped towards the dining room. Sano followed Junichi while he was walking—sorry, I mean hopping—yes, hopping to the dining room. As Sano walked behind Junichi, he started thinking to himself.

" This is great. Nobody knows I've sided with Cooro yet. I'll just distract everyone until he's recovered, help him sneak through the castle to take that woman he mentioned, and then I'll give him an elaborate escape. What could possibly go wrong?"

XXX

After fifteen minutes of waiting by the table for Junichi to return, he finally came out with a steaming cup of hot tea. Sano made a quick " Thank you" and grabbed the cup from Junichi's hands. Sano started sipping the cup. While sipping the cup he couldn't help but feel a td but curious.

" Where is everyone?" Sano asked after he placed the cup down on the table. " Where are the maids? Where is Lady Khara? And where are Samba, Hex, and Ox?"

" Oh, Lady Khara had stuff she needed to do," Junichi said to Sano. " You know how are lady is when things don't go like the way she hopes. She also asked all the maids to join her in her studies."

" Yes, but still where are Samba, Hex, and Ox?"

" Those three were given orders from our lady. She said to go out and look for that Fairy Tail spy. But she gave me a different order. Do you want to know what that order was?"

" No. What order did she give you?"

" She told me…" Junichi clapped his hands together. A large cage fell down and landed on Junichi and Sano. They were both boxed in and had nowhere to run. It was then Sano saw a hint of tainted red in Junichi's eyes. " Too stay behind and get rid of the traitor Sano."

XXX

Gia waited for Sano to return. There was still four hours left on the bomb. She awaited Sano to return and tell her everything was going to be okay for her and her master Cooro. However, he didn't return and Gia was starting too get worried about him.

" I have a bad feeling about this?" Gia thought, she used her Aera magic to fly. " Sano, why do I have the feeling someone has hurt you?"

" Their here. Samba, samba, samba," a woman cackled in the distance. " Let's get them. Samba, samba, samba."

A cold feeling rushed up the back of Gia's spine as she saw three of Khara's servants walking towards her: Samba, Hex, and Ox. She knew all of them knew she had Cooro and were prepared to attack him while he was vulnerable.

" We can make this much easier for you, kitty," Hex said to Gia. " You can just fly away or you could forfeit your life. Either way..." Hex's eyes glowed bright red-yellow as he/she stared into Gia's eyes. " We are going to end someone's life."

XXX

Everything was quiet inside Khara's house. Not a whisper or a shout. All that was heard inside the mansion was the gentle drop of water from a leaking faucet. That was however until the doors were kicked open and the green-haired Fairy Tail member April with her striped dog Komatsu jumped inside.

Comically, April breathed fire from her mouth like a dragon while Komatu's hair stood up the same as when a porcupine was defending itself. They were ready to fight. " Okay, who owns this mansion? Argh! Argh! Argh!" April shouted while she breathed fire through her mouth. " I'll take you down! Argh! Argh Argh!"

There was still silence. The sound of a cricket was heard chirping somewhere in the mansion. April expected at least someone to show up-mainly Cooro since she considered him to be so obsessive about everything and she believed he suffered from OCD-but no one showed up.

" Hello," April said hoping someone could answer her, but no one did." Heeelllloooooooooo. Hmmm. I've never been able to say that many O's before."

" Rowf," April's dog Komatsu said.

" You're right, Komatsu. It is really quiet around here. Where is everyone?"

April was starting to get ideas. Whenever April started getting ideas she would start to get worked up. April quickly pulled out a dinosaur costume, a stegosaurus, and put it on.

" Maybe the dinosaurs came back to life and wiped everyone."

April quickly changed costumes and became a slimy alien with an antenna sticking out of her head.

" Or maybe the aliens crash landed here and adducted everyone."

April quickly changed her costume. She became a farmer with a straw hat, blue overalls, and had a piece of wheat in her mouth.

" Or maybe the yokels came and got revenge on the residents for taking their land, like. They took our jobs, like."

April's eyes wondered all possibilities ( none of them were true of course) of what may've happened to the house residents. That's when Junichi showed up. He was carrying an unconscious Sano in his right shoulder and walked towards the door, but stopped when he saw it was broken into small pieces.

" So, we have an unwanted guest, eh?" Junichi said while he stared at April. " Such a problem. I wonder what I'm going to do with you."

" Hi," April waved at the rabbit/bird human hybrid. " My name is April. You're cute. What's your nam-"

Junichi ignored April and punched the air with his left hand. As he did a small wormhole appeared in the air. Another wormhole appeared in front of April. The fist travelled from Junichi's hand and punched April in her face. April fell down, Komatsu started yelping, and Junichi walked over April as he walked out the door.

" Such a stupid little girl. But I'm afraid I don't have much time for you. There's some people I have to meet."

XXX

Gia was outnumbered three to one. She was against the eccentric dancer Samba, the hermaphrodite Hex, and the tall yet quiet swordsman Ox. Luckily she was able to recover a little of her powers and she recovered from her wound. Gia's wings were coated metal.

" Taking you down should be no problem, kitty," Hex said as he/she, Samba, and Ox walked towards Gia and Hex's eyes were glowing. " We wouldn't even have to use our magic to defeat someone as weak as yo-"

" Wing Fury!"

Gia flapped her metal wings. As he did small metal feathers were fired from her wings. Hex and Ox jumped over the metal feathers before they could fight him. Samba however dodged the feathers by spinning around, dancing, and cackling along the way.

" Samba!" Samba laughed as she spinned out of the way. " Samba, samba, samba!"

" Wing Dash!"

Gia stopped firing feathers from her wings and dashed towards Samba. She charged at her straight, but Samba laughed and jumped to the right. Gia then did a loop in the air and charged at Samba from behind, but Samba saw it and spinnd to the left.

"Samba, samba, samba."

" Ah!" Gia stopped attacking tactfully and thrashed her wings at Samba as fast as she could. Gia however couldn't seem to land a hit on her. Samba danced, laughed, and it all seemed while she did it Gia could never seem to hit her. " Stand still!"

" Samba, samba, samba."

Hex and Ox appeared behind Gia. Claws stretched out of Hex's fingers while Ox unsheathed his katana. Both Hex and Ox sneaked behind Gia. Hex scratched Gia with the claws and Ox slashed Gia with his sword. Blood trickled from Gia's back, large scratch marks appeared on her back, a thin vertical slash trickling with blood on her back, and Gia fell on the ground.

" I told you we could defeat you without using any of our magic, kitty," Hex said after slashing Gia's back. " Now, are you going to do as I asked and leave, or are you really going to sacrifice yourself for some human?"

" Ox?" Ox said. " Oxx. Ox. Ox, Ox. OX!"

" Ox is right. Aren't cats suppose to be hunters? And what kind of hunter would you be if you cared after a human?"

" Be quiet!" Gia quickly recovered from her injuries and slashed at Hex and Ox with her metal wings. While slashing her wings she also kicked her legs at them. " I won't allow you to tantalize Cooro's good soul anymore!"

Gia spinned around while floating in the air. As she spinned her wings spread out and slashed both Hex and Ox across their cheeks. Hex and Ox tried to attack Gia after blood trickled from her cheeks, but she pulled out two giant pieces of fish and smacked them against both Hex and Ox. As they were dazed, she dashed right and left; jabbed the tips of her wings into both Hex and Ox's chests.

" Don't-make-fun-of-Cooro. Never speak ill of my maste-"

Hex and Ox both came up and scratched at Gia. They weren't able to touch her, but the shock of him them show up made her blood race and blood gushed out of the wounds she received from before. Gia was defeated by both Hex and Ox and she fell down.

" I told you, kitty, there was no way you could ever defeat us."

" Samba, samba, samba."

" Ox. Ox. Ox."

" We're servants of Lady Khara. A mere animal like you could never understand what powers we possess. What struggles we all went through. So just give us your human and we'll leave you to die with your dignity-"

" H-How?" Gia coughed while she was too injured too get back up. " How were you able to stop my attack? It should of paralysed you."

" Hmmm. You're quite the curious little kitten, aren't you. Very well. I see no harm in telling you. See, when we joined Lady Khara she gave us a special kind of Lost Magic. Each and everyone of us have very special abilities. Ox as you might know..."

Hex ripped his/hers blue suit and showed off a silver chainmail around his/hers chest. Ox also ripped off his clothes and showed off a chainmail around his chest.

" Ox has the ability to place chainmail's on anyone's bodies. As you might know, chainmail, or maille, is a type of armour consisting of small metal rings linked together in a pattern to form a mesh. It protects us against every edged weapon."

" Ox. Ox, Ox, Ox."

" Thank you for that incite, Ox. Yes, my ability is I can see through solid objects with my eyes. I bet you were probably wondering why they glowed so bright. I was able to find that Fairy Tail spy using my eyes to see through everything like he was lying right in front of me."

" I won't let you have Cooro. I'll never let you have my master!"

" It's a shame you're so obedient too him. You and I could've made the perfect pair. But I'm afraid now I have no choice but end each of your nine lives." Claws stretched out of Hex's fingers as Hex prepared to scratch Gia's head off by decapitating her. " And I'll make you suffer for each one. One by on-"

Before Hex could finish speaking a small green ball of light that looked like a cannon ball was fired out of nowhere and hit Hex in the face. Another ball of light fired out of nowhere and this time hit Ox in the face. Samba, who was dancing up until now, stopped dancing to look back at the cave.

Gia was also able to look at the cave. In the entrance of the cave was Cooro standing with his arm transformed into a small cannon. Cooro hadn't recovered completely from his last battle, he was heaving heavily shuddered as well staggered, but continued holding his cannon up.

" Stay-ack-away-ack-from my-ack-cat."

" C-Cooro..."

The excruciating pain inside of Cooro made his lungs feel like they were being clamped by oysters. He fell and collapsed on the floor. All seemed lost for Cooro, but he glowed with bright white light, stood up, and when the lights faded Kanellos appeared.

" Honestly, Cooro, sometimes I think you like getting hurt," Kanellos said in his boastful voice. " But I guess your courage is what's so admirable about you. Now, let uncle Kanellos take care of yo-"

" Not another move, pipsqueak," came a loud and blood chilling voice. " One more move, and your little friend gets it."

The person who was talking was Junichi. Junichi was standing next to Samba with unconscious Sano in his arms. He had his wings up too Sano's throat, that was as sharp as knives, and used him as a hostage.

" Make any sudden moves, and the traitor gets it. Do you understand what I'm telling you? Either you hand yourself in or I'll cut his throat."


	4. Chapter 4

Kanellos's mind was linked with Cooro's. Cooro could see everything that was happening in the world around him. And even though Cooro adorable Junichi because he resembled an animal, which he cared about more than anything in the world, he couldn't stand seeing Sano being tortured by it.

" Let him go," Cooro's voice said through Kanello's mouth. " He has nothing to do with me or my mission. He was just helping me because we're friends. You're his friends too, aren't you?"

" Friends?" Junichi asked while he had a smug look on his face. " That's funny. None of us at the mansion are friends. If Lady Khara ordered us to kill another member then we'll kill that member. We're all just her loyal dogs."

" You're a monster. I can't believe I ever thought you were cute. And what animal even wears a thong in the first place?"

" I'm afraid the clock is ticking for you. Just how long are you going to make me wait? My patience is growing thin. And if I'm impatient, I might just slip and make him bleed all his blood through his jugular veins. Ooh, he'll hemorrhage so bad there'll be nothing you can do to save him."

" Fine. If that's the way it's going too be then..." Kanellos's body glowed with bright light. When the light faded Cooro stood before him, unarmed, with very low magic power. " Come on. You can do whatever you like to me. I do however wish you'd hurt me as much as possible before you kill me."

" Cooro, no!" Sano shouted. Sano regained consciousness while Cooro and Junichi were having a standoff and he yelled trying to make Cooro see the light. " You don't have to sacrifice yourself for me, Cooro! I was the one who failed Lady Khara. Let me be the one to die!"

" That's not the case, Sano." For once since Sano met Cooro the once gloom boy with a scarf wrapped around his neck smiled. " There's really nothing going for me. At least you're handsome. I am simply just unlovable. I'm everything but handsome, nobody wants to be around me; my own sister wouldn't even look at me if we weren't related, and my own parents never anything to do with me. I'm just so...unlovable."

" Cooro ,that's not true! So what if some people don't understand you. I do. You even called me your friend, didn't you? How could you be so selfish? Do you know what losing a friend would feel like too me?"

" I'm sorry but...that's just the way I feel."

" You heard him, traitor," Junichi said snidely to Sano. " This boy doesn't want to live anymore. Why don't you just do as he says and let him end his own life? And I'm going to make him suffer so long and so bad he's going to feel the worst pains imaginable."

Junichi dropped Sano and walked up to Cooro. Cooro did nothing but stand still as Junichi walked towards him. Using his right hand Junichi lifted him off the ground. Out of his left hand came strong looking steel that looked like whips, only they were semi-white and semi-black.

" Before I became a servant of Lady Khara, I was once called the Steel Spider. My magic allowed me to create long string made out of steel so sharp it can slice through metal. I was going to just slice you in half through the center with me string, but since you want too die as slowly as you can, I'll start by giving you a handicap."

Junichi pulled his string back and whipped it at Cooro's legs. Through the knees Cooro started bleeding. Cooro however didn't show the slightest face of pain. Since Cooro wore baggy shorts, everyone could see the blood gush down his knees and went through his shoes.

" It seems like you're a much stronger human than I anticipated. Perhaps I should raise the volume of your pain."

Junichi whipped his string everywhere around Cooro's arms. More wounds were ripped open as Cooro started hemorrhaging blood through his wounds. But no matter how many times Junichi whipped him, made him bleed, made him suffer, Cooro just stood perfectly still and didn't even make a sound.

" Fairy Tail spy. I've had enough of looked at that squishy, unterrified face of yours. I've endured it for too long, but I'm going to have to end our little charade." Junichi pulled his string up and prepared to whip it down. The last thing Cooro saw of him was his smug smile. " This is where you say good-bye!"

" Cooro!"

Junichi whipped his metal string down and prepared to do as he wanted too do and was about to slice Cooro in half. Then out of nowhere giant flowers emanated out of Junichi's palms. The flowers that bloomed out was mellifluous with pollen of honey sweeter than powder sugar.

Junichi staggered at the sight of the flowers. Before him wasn't the boy with the scarf around his neck but the pointy dog-eared man Kanellos. Kanellos pinched Junichi's right cheek, squeezed it, then flicked his fingers on his whiskers, laughed whole heartedly.

" Honestly. Cooro may have his quirks, but he would never do something as impulsive as wish for death. That whole giving himself thing was just a ploy."

" H-How is this possible?" Junichi gasped at the sight of the flowers.

" Funny you should asked. I had a hand down your wings and you never even noticed. The thing I planted in you was a seed that blooms giant flowers in a matter of seconds. They would've sprouted sooner, but their triggered by my anger, and I was having just too much fun. I would love to stay and chat with you some more, whisker face , but Cooro has some things he would love to say too you."

Kanellos's body glowed with bright white light. As the light faded Cooro stood in front of Junichi. Cooro was fully healed and was begging to spar in a boxing match. Cooro punched Junichi in his face, followed by an uppercut too his jaw, ending with three punches to the stomach. When he was done punching, Cooro grabbed Junichi's long hair and pulled him down to his face.

" When Sano called you his friend, what did you say too him?" Cooro spat in Sano's face.

" A-ah!" Junichi cried while he had his hair pulled.

" You said if you would you would kill him. If there's one thing I hate it's arrogant, stupid people like you. Nobody says that too my friends."

Without thinking Cooro head-butted Junichi in his face. Junichi went into a comatose-like state the moment he felt Cooro's hard head. Cooro pushed Junichi too the ground, and then he held his hands on his forehead as he could feel the pain of the aftermath throbbing inside his brain.

" Ow," Cooro grunted while rubbing his forehead. " I went too overboard. Idiot."

" C-Cooro," Sano staggered. Cooro turned around and saw Sano standing behind him. He was fiddling with his fingers and pondered to himself. " What you did was really reckless, Cooro. I thought something bad was going to happen to you."

" I'm sorry you feel that way, Sano," Cooro replied. " But I didn't think you were really worried about me."

" Of course I was, you idiot. You're my only friend. I lost my parents, I lost my home, and I lost my employment. You're the only thing I have left. Please don't leave me."

The bond Cooro and Sano shared were that of brothers; not of romantic interest. Cooro never had a brother. He hardly even had a sister whom he knew never wanted to look at him and see his melancholy face. Sano never had any family. The only person who took care of him was himself before he met Lady Khara. Both Cooro and Sano shared a smile, raised their hands out, and shaked them; hard so not too look like a wimpy handshake; a wimpy one would be a malady. The only thing that ruined their moment was the sound of a cackling crone.

" Samba. Samba, samba, samba, ooh. Sano, you can't leave us," the crone said to the badger (Sano). " You must yield to Lady Khara."

" I'm sorry, Samba, but I just can't hold our affair any longer. But hey, we can still be friends."

" No, you idiot, don't tell her that. Noooooo."

" F-Friends?" If there was one thing nobody wanted to hear at the end of a relationship it was...never mention the word "Friends" to your X. " FRIENDS!?"

" Is that the wrong thing to say?"

" Is it ever the right thing to say?"

" FRIENDS?!"

Samba's once harmonious demeanor shattered into a furor of anguish. Her eyes illuminated red like the color of blood, her skin became white the same as white bed sheets, and her teeth became sharp the same as daggers.

" I'LL KILL YOU, SAN-"

" Hey look, there's a hunky guy with his shirt off standing behind you," Cooro said trying to distract Samba with a distraction.

" Where?" Samba replied flamboyantly. Her eyes lit up with stars. " Samba, samba, samba. Where is the hunky gu-"

While she was distracted Cooro ran up behind Samba. He tapped her right shoulder trying to make her look at him directly in his eyes, then he punched her in her right cheek. Cooro could've sword her jaw bones cracked when he punched her delicate smooth skin, just was an illusion caused by his stress.

" Take that, cuckoo."

Even when hit Samba remained to be her flamboyant and eccentric self. She made sure that when she tell that Cooro could see the feather sticking out her butt. She hid her prude face with her plastic wings and swayed her butt for Cooro too see.

" Ooh, I've been a very bad girl. You'll have to spank me. Samba, samba, samba. Punish me for my crimes."

" Ack! Stop acting stupid. Why would I want to hit you, you crazy masochist?" Cooro grabbed Samba's right elbow and pulled her right side up. Cooro made another sign with his hand that meant " I'll help you up". " Well, are you just going to sit there all day or do you want me to help you up?"

" Help me up?" Samba blinked.

" Yes. Less you like lying in the dir-"

Samba's legs were like snakes that constricted themselves around Cooro's back. They constricted him, crushed him, and yet felt soft like the skin of a baby. Samba giggled in Cooro's right ears while she crushed him.

" Ooh. You're exactly my type. Samba, samba, samba. Let's run away together with my Lost Magic."

Before Sano's eyes Cooro disappeared along with Samba. They disappeared in a puff of blue smoke. Sano tried grabbing Cooro before he disappeared, but he was completely and utterly gone.

" Cooro! Cooro, where are you? Cooro, come back."

" You needn't worry about that Fairy Tail spy right now, dear Sano," Hex said behind Sano's back. Hex made a full recovery while Cooro was quarreling against Junichi and was able to move freely again as well as Ox who stood besides him. " When we're done with you, you needn't need to worry about anything." Hex's claws stretched out of his fingernails. " Ever again."

Sano was hitting Hex and Ox with a barrage of attacks. He attacked them with grenades, flash bombs, and even time bombs. None of his attacks worked as Ox and Hex were able to jump away from them with their crafty moves. Sano however wasn't giving up. He got his courage from watching Cooro fight.

" Give it up, Sano," Hex laughed heartedly while he/she jumped all over the place. " There's no way you can beat us. Together, we make the perfect tag team combination."

" Ox!" Ox laughed while he also jumped all over the place. " Ox, Ox, Ox."

" That's right, Ox. You should have taken the life of that Fairy Tail spy while you still had the chance. You could be back in Lady Khara's mansion enjoying another one of your sappy books. But you choosed to betray us."

" I never betrayed you!" Sano shouted. Sano at the time was running all over the place and threw bombs everywhere. " All I wanted to do was help Cooro. He was the only person who looked at me without thinking I'm diseased. The first day I came here, you all picked on me because of my eyes."

" They were hideous eyes. With eyes like yours people would've thought you were a vampire. So Lady Khara ripped out your eyes and gave you eyes of her late stepfather. It's too bad without your real eyes your powers are limited by your blind, untamed eyes."

" Enough!" Sano was about to throw another grenade at them. However, he ran out of sleeve pieces to rip off. Sano took his shirt off. His chest was ripled with an eight pack most girls would drool over. Sano ripped the rest of his shirt into small pieces and blew them towards Hex and Ox. As he did, all the sleeves turned into grenades, flashbangs, and time bombs. There would be no

" I may not be able to use my real powers, but I think I'm using this one pretty well. What do you think-"

" Ox, do it." Ox unsheathed his katana from behind his back and slashed it at the numerous bombs. As he did a giant wormhole ripped open in the air as air blew the bombs inside and the wormhole closed. What happened to the bombs neither Sano nor Hex knew. Only Ox. " Ox, give me supplies."

Ox slashed the air with his katana and another giant wormhole opened in the sky. Then, a bunch of random supplies fell down: wood, rocks, a boulder, nails, and rope. Hex reached into his jacket and pulled out a thin piece of blue paper. Hex reached into his jacket again and pulled out a feather with a small ink vase. Hex dipped the feather in the ink and then he started drawing. His drawing speed was as fast as a cheetah.

" Uh-oh," Sano thought while watching Hex draw on the paper. " This isn't good. I've good to stop Hex before he finishes drawing."

It was too late for Sano. In a matter of seconds Hex had written everything he needed. The once inanimate supplies animated themselves, joined together, and in one big flash they joined together to form a tower. A tower made out of wood, had a pointed out part with a long string of rope hanging down, and a boulder connected to it. The tower then spun around, rotors in the wood spinned it, and it whacked into Sano.

" Ah!" Sano screamd after he was hit. Sano fell into the ground and kept sliding until he reached a halt. While he was down, Hex and Ox walked side by side and moved towards Sano. " No... how could you do something like that?"

" What, didn't you know?" Hex asked. " You were the most clueless of all seven of us. It's my magic of course. I can change blue prints into completed objects. Ox, my cousin in case you're wondering, he can create wormholes into other dimensions using his hands. Though he insists on holding a sword. And, living matter can't enter his wormholes. Only objects, or dead people, or Celestial Spirits for that matter."

Something strange seemed to twinkle inside Hex's eyes. It almost looked like Hex was enjoying himself. Only there was something that was making Hex act this way. Something happened to Hex that made him/ her want to join Lady Khara's manion."

" W-What were you before joining Lady Khara's mansion, Hex?" Sano asked.

" You really want to know? It's about time. I was an attorney and my cousin Ox was a construction builder since he didn't have the brains to finish third grade while he had the strength to lift up a small house. But I was sick of my life. I wanted out. I wanted something more than to live in my quaint little apartment and hope some miracle would happen. That's when I read about this girl named Lady Khara who lost her stepfather."

" Read? Didn't Lady Khara contact you like she contacted me?"

" No, no, you were the luckiest one of us. Lady Khara didn't contact us. We went straight to her. She promised us vast fortune beyond our wildest dreams if we lived with her and became her servants. For some reason she never wanted to be alone. Do you know what she told me the first I walked in. She said "In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, you control everything. That was her way of saying if we followed her we could pretty much rule the world. And unlike you, Sano, I've seen just what her powers are."

" Well, what are they?"

" None of your business. But I must tell you, it's very powerful. Probably stronger and more disasterous than any magician I've seen before. After seeing how powerful she is, I quit my job as an attorney and got my brother, and we rushed to it as soon as we could."

" Why would you quit on your job? Didn't it ever cross your mind that you need to think of others besides yourself?"

" Of course. And you know what I think sacraficing yourself for others is the dumbest thing I ever heard about. And now-projectory, minus longitude, plus latitude- this is the end for you, Sano. Catapult!"

The tower broke into a dozen pieces, then moved back together and created a giant wooden catapult. A large rock was launched from the catapult and was about to fall on Sano. Sano, who was injured, couldn't do anything but scream at the sight of the boulder about to crush him.

" Ahhhhhhhhh!"

Something strange then happened to Sano. Out of nowhere came April. She carried Komatsu as her dog tranformed into a one-blade scythe. She span her scythe around in circles, cutting through the rocks, and slicing through it as it crumbled into five separate pieces. As the five pieces fell in front of April's feet, April wiped her head from the sweat.

" Whew. Glad that worked out." April smiled and laughed to herself while she was still speaking. " That could have been disasterous if I failed. Haha."

"Girls are so one sided," Sano thought while he sweatdropped looking at April laugh. "She also seems to be a member of Fairy Tail like Cooro. I wonder who exactly she is."

April felt Sano's hot breath breathing raspily out from sustaining his injuries. She walked up to him and smiled at him as she waved her hand cheerfully. " Hi. My name is April. Who the heck are you? And..." April poked Sano's masculine chest, then she poked his firm male nipples. " Why aren't you wearing a shirt? Are you a streaker like Gray the member who used Ice Maker magic?"

April smacked Sano's chest. As she did Sano clenched his fists and bite his lips from the pain he had in his ribs. " Ow! OW! Don't smack my chest!"

" Whoops. Sorry. Does it hurt?"

" Yeah it hurts! Are you an airhead or something? The next time you do that, I'll kill you!"

" My, don't you two make the perfect couple," Hex commented while he rubbed his chin. " Are you trying to make some fond memory's together before you get married. Like, hey kids, did you hear about the story where I met your mom she smacked my broken, probably fractured, ribs."

" What? No! I don't plan on ever getting married. And I'd never get married to an airhead idiot like this girl!"

" Hi!" April turned around and waved flamboyantly at Hex and Ox. Both Hex, Ox, and Sano sweatdropped as April was waving to the enemy. " My name is April. I'm a member of Fairy Tail. And I'm looking for another member without a stamp named Cooro. Have you seen him?"

" So you're really a member of Fairy Tail like that last guy who showed up on our doorstep? You can throw as many Fairy Tail members at me as you want. I have an ample amount of paper to work with. Oh Ox."

Ox slashed his sword into the air. A giant wormhole opened up and multiple pieces of rope fell down. Hex instantly pulled out a piece of blue paper and started drawing diagrams on it with his feather. When he finished drawing, the paper glowed bright blue, and all the ropes slithered on the ground like they were snakes and conjoined, making loops around each other, into a giant net.

" Net! Fall on that dumb girl!"

The net was about to fall on April. April however was prepared for it. Komatsu, that was a scythe in her hands, he tranformed into a boomerang made out of metal. April pulled the boomerang back and threw it at the net. The boomerang spinned, turned, and cut the net until it was nothing but even smaller pieces of rope, then spinned back into April's waiting arms.

" That was superb," April laughed after she caught Komatsu. " You did great, Komatsu."

" Rowf!" Komatsu barked in his boomerang tranformation.

" Hmmmm." Hex pondered as he/she rubbed his/her chin. " That was impressive to watch. I wonder if you're as strong as that Fairy Tail spy Cooro that you speak of. There's only one way to find out. Oh Ox. Let's do the Double-Combination. Move Number Five."

" Ox," Ox replied.

Ox slashed his sword in the air for the umpteenth time. More supplies fell out and Hex took out his/her blue paper and the feather he used to write on it. However, unlike the last times, Ox thrusted his sword forward, a wormhole appeared at the tip of his sword and another wormhole appeared in front of April, and the tip of his sword came out.

" Ah!" April clapped her hands on the sword and stopped the sword from cutting her. " Don't do that. You can really hurt someone with this thi-"

Out of nowhere came a giant boulder. The boulder hit the right side of April's face and pushed her into a dune on her far left. She fell into the dune and rolled down it until she was in the center of it.

" Where did that boulder come from?" April asked herself while she rubbed her head. " It came out of nowhere like-"

April was about to be clamped to death by a giant, razor sharp bear trap. The sad truth was April couldn't move. The sharp razors reminded April of the beast that slaughtered her father. Not having the willpower to move April could only scream at her supposed death. However, instead of clamping on April, it shut on a metal time bomb thrown by Sano.

" Run!" Sano shouted. He was standing on both his hands and feet as he looked at the bottom of the dune where April was standing. "Luckily your helping out actually gave me enough energy to move again. But I don't know for how bomb's going to go off in just three more seconds!"

" What? Ah!"

April ran as fast as she could trying to get out of the sand dune. However, even though she wasn't able to reach the top in time, the explosion wasn't great enough to reach a radius any farther than the center. But just when Sano thought everything was okay, supplies fell down, started fixing themselves, and a giant cannon, three times the size of Cooro's hand cannon, appeared.

" Lookout behind you!"

April turned around to see the cannon just in time. A giant cannon ball was fired from the cannon. April wanted to grab the cannon ball so that she could use her metal bending ability on it, only the cannon ball fired was made out of clay. Even though that was the case, the size and speed that it travelled... if it rammed into April... she would die on impact.

" Ah!" April screamed as she ran up the dune towards Sano.

" No, don't go running towards me, you idiot! You're going to get me killed too-"

April finally reached the top of the hill and pushed Sano too the ground. The cannonball fell over them and kept rising into the sky. While it was rocketing into the sky, Sano and April shared a special moment. April's hands were warm. Them touching Sano almost made him want to vomit, but in a good way. It felt as if butterflies were flying in his throat, they were lying under mistletoe, and April enticed Sano with her plump, rosey lips.

" Well, look at you two lovebirds," Hex commented while walking towards April and Sano with Ox by his side. " I thought about using more of my diagrams to finish you all off, but I would find it more enjoyable if I killed you two while you're weak."

" Get off me!" Sano shouted to April. He pushed the green haired, tri-pigtail girl off and got back on his feet. He then pointed a finger at Hex. " How did you do that whole trick where your things come out of nowhere?"

" Funny you should ask. See, this entire front yard is like a big battlefield. And like any battlefield a diagram of artillery can be positioned on it. Ergo, I can place my completed objects anywhere that I like. And since you're all so weak, Ox and I only need one more diagram to finish you. Ox-"

" Wait!" Sano shouted. He raised a hand to Hex and Ox and put the two of them on hold. " If you're going to kill me, then just kill me. Let this member of Fairy Tail go. I, the person who can turn clothes into bombs, am the one who betrayed all of you. She's got nothing to do with this. Just let her live her own life, okay."

April for a brief second felt love for the man who's name she didn't even know. April held her hands over her chest and stared at what was in her minda pictureframe of Sano with flowers debazzling his handsome face, making his black hair sparkle, and giving her the fake image that he was smiling. Hex on the other hand just laughed at Sano.

" I'm sorry, but did you really think we were going to let any of you live?"

" Ox. Ox, Ox."

" That's right, my cousin. After we're done dealing with you two once and for all we're chasing after that Fairy Tail spy. Only real members know all Samba's tricks. A servant who only got here from Lady Khara taking pity on you would never understand." Claws came out of Hex's fingers as he prepared to slash them at Sano's throat. He raised his claws up and prepared to end Sano's life. " Kudos for you Sano for making it so far. This whole battle has been like a story to me. But like all stories, it must soon come to an en-"

Without thinking Hex stopped on something explosive. The explosion that he stepped on created a small explosion that burned, but didn't blow off Hex's left foot. Hex fell down after being hit by the explosion and rubbed his feet while he tried hiding the tears that were swelling up in his eyes.

" Ah! What happened to me?"

" You're not the only one who can make a trap, Hex," Sano smirked while he pointed at the remains of something circle, flat that exploded. " I created a special kind of bomb called a landmine. It's something that when stepped on will explode. Luckily, mine wasn't strong enough to kill you."

" B-But how. You're shirtless, your pants aren't teared, and you even still have that stupid hat on your head."

" First of all my hat isn't stupid. It's an authentic antique. Second of all I wasn't entirely shirtless. I always carry shirts with me." Sano reached into his pants and pulled out a folded black shirt that looked like the one he was wearing before. Sano quickly unfolded the shirt and placed it on his chest. A small hole was seeing through the fabric. " I took a piece from this one while you weren't looking."

" YOU STUFF YOUR SHIRTS IN YOUR PANTS?!"

" Of course. I made a memo about it. It's very convenient that way. And I'm surprised you didn't know that about me, Hex, since apparently you all know everything about each other."

" That's it! Ox, cut him in half with your sword, now!"

Ox did as Hex asked him to do and unsheathed his katana and raised it over his head. It was held over his head as Ox prepared to cut Sano down with it. Before he could, April dashed in front of Ox and stopped the blade with her two hands. A gray circle illuminated from both of April's arms while she touched metal. The tip of Ox's metal bended right, elongated, and wrapped around Ox's neck. As Ox was being choked by his own blade, Sano stared dumbfoundly at April.

" That thing right now-how...how are you able to do that?"

April turned around and smiled at Sano. " This? My magic is I'm able to bend metal in anyway that I want. Pretty cool, right?"

" You she-devil!" Hex shouted. " I will not permit thee to hurt my cousin any longer!"

" Ox (Hex)!" Ox shouted as his cousin Hex ran towards Sano with his/her claws stretched out and he was being choked. " Ox (Don't)! Ox ( It's a trap)!"

It didn't seem like a trap to Hex. He was easily able to hurt April. He scratched her arms, scratched her legs, and even scratched her face with great speed and even greater power. April finally let go of Ox's katana and Ox fell on his rump hitting the ground. After Ox fell down, Hex backed away from April, just dripping with small amounts of blood, and joined his cousin Ox. No sooner did he back away did April fall back.

" Green-haired crazy girl!" Sano shouted as he dived down and caught April before her wounds touched the rough dirt. " Are you okay?"

" I am now thanks to you," April replied to Sano with a smile. She shuddered from the pain of her wounds. " I-I hope I did well for you."

Now that Ox's blade returned to normal, Hex knew Ox could now do his ultimate attack. Without telling him, Ox stood up and slashed six times in the sky, crossing his old slashes, and making a hexagon symbol in the sky.

" Ox! ( Six-Blade Dimension Slash!)"

A wormhole six times larger than all of Ox's other wormholes ripped open and dozens of wood supplies fell down. Hex quickly took out a piece of blue paper, a feather with ink, and drew what he/she wanted to draw in a matter of seconds. As Hex did the wood pieces quickly made a new kind of masterpiece. Four ramps that looked like race tracks in dog racing appeared around Sano and April, and at the other end were four wooden jeeps. It came to Sano's attention that the jeeps were about to race towards them and crash into them.

" You've been a thorn in my side long enough, Sano, and you filthy member of Fairy Tail," Hex said as the cars were being pulled back and were about to be launched forward. " Granted, this isn't as arcutive as all my other creations, however, there's no way for you to run or hide from this attack. You can't create a bomb that can explode faster than these cars can vroom, and since they're made of wood your friend can't bend them like she can behind metal. This is the end for you, San-"

There was another explosion. This time it was inside Hex's jacket. The moment the explosion came did the cars collaspe into nothing more than pieces of wood. Hex was frantic, reached into his jacket hoping his paper would be elible still, the only problem was when he pulled out the paper all he found was burned up copies.

" I figured since the blueprints were what created your objects, they would need to be kept atone until your attack went through," Sano said. " Remember when you started scratching the poor girl? Before you even laid a finger on her, I gave her a piece of my shirt. Then while you were scratching her she slipped the piece into your jacket where you keep your blueprints."

" Don't tell me you-"

" That's right. I transformed that single piece into a bomb. Those were my small dynamties that I like to call Firecrackers. The residue in them isn't as lethal as normal size dynamties, but they sure pack a mean punch. Now, I'm only going to do this once." Sano took out a pair of black sunglasses from his pockets and placed them over his eyes. He snipped his head around while snapping his fingers. " Dynamite." Sano clapped his hands together and then snapped his fingers again. " Dynamite. Yeah, that so don't look cool."

" Enough with your mockery! We're not gone yet. And with our chainmail armor we won't be so easily beate-"

" Chainmail is a kind of metal right?" April asked. " Is it?"

" Eh, yes, it is," Hex said slightly dumbfounded by April asking questions. " Why do you ask?"

" Because I'm going to use it to beat both of you. Metal Magic: Chin, Rocket Fist!"

April smacked both Hex and Ox on their chests. The moment her hand made contact did the metal bend and became two giant metal fists. The fists punched straight up and punched both Hex and Ox underneath their chins. Under they chin they were weak, both fell down, and both had their eyes rolling aroud in circels as they were both defeated. With their win, both Sano and April did a dance together, only they stopped when they looked each other in the faces again, and then they laughed together.

" We didn't really have the chance to introduce ourselves. My name is Sano. Sano Everest."

" Hi, Sano. My name is April. April Beonka."

" Hello there, April. Now that we're no longer strangers, let's go find Coor-"

" I wouldn't be worried about that Fairy Tail spy right now, traitor," Junichi snarled behind Sano and April. Both of them turned around and saw Junichi staring at them. " Your friend is now trapped in Samba's own world. Only I can get inside of it. And when I find this Cooro, I'm going to rip out every part of his body."


	5. Chapter 5

" It's freezing here!" Cooro shouted as he rubbed his bare arms and started shivering. " I feel like an icicle. Brrrrrrrr."

Cooro was now in some kind of forest. The forest was layered with snow. Under Cooro's feet was a bag with which he opened and saw cossack hats inside of it. The hats looked ghastly. Cooro sweatdropped when he looked at them.

" Where the heck am I? First I was in a desert and now I'm in a forest. Somebody please wake me up."

" Hi!" Samba shouted flamboyantly. Cooro turned around and saw the strange girl Samba waving at him. She then did a hula dance where she thrusted her belly up and thrusted it back down. " Let's play together! Join me in a hula dance."

" Are you crazy? Where the heck are we?"

" We're in my world. It's a world I've always dreamed about. With my Lost Magic I can create a special area we can play in. The only problem is it always has to be agame played after five minutes of being inside. Oh darling. The powdered snow and the trees, how you would hold me in your arms and gently place a kiss on my-"

" Get that image out of my HEAD! There's no way that's very happening! Now why don't you make yourself useful for once and take me back to the real world so I can beatyour Lady Khara to a bloody pulp."

" Ooh!" Samba's cheeks tinted red and she cacked as she shaked her head around. " Samba, samba, samba! " You're cute. If you listen to me well I might even teach you some of my skills."

" Skills. What skills are you talking about- wait, don't tell me... y-you-your a-a-a... BOY!"

" Yep. Pretty good disguise, wouldn't you agree? And I was even able to change my voice. So, would you like to kiss me?And if you ask, I'll even bear your child."

" Ah. I was hit on by a boy. And a handsome boy. I'm starting to hate boys just as much as I hate girls. Guess I have no other choice. My little ace in the

hole." Cooro took out a choclate bar from his baggy shorts and handed it out to Samba. " Here. If you let me go then I'll let you have this chocolate bar."

" Samba? Ooh. Thank you, darling." Samba swiped the chocolate bar away from Cooro and ate it down in a matter of seconds. As she did, Cooro sweat dropped. Samba made a happy face. " Mmmmmm. That choclate sure was good."

" T-That's not really good for your thighs. Even though you're a boy."

" It makes me want to dance! Samba, samba, samba!"

Samba pulled out a microphone that was hidden in his circlet dress. He then span around in circles, then stopped and made a pose where he had both his hands on the microphone and was moving all parts of his body, though he stayed in one place.

_" Catch my heart through an ocean of sorrow. "_

_" Give me just a little bit of hope."_

_" And give me just a little bit of chocolate."_

_" Oh, I do love me some chocolate."_

_" Chocolate. It's the soul that binds me with my darling Cooro."_

_" Oh, Cooro, can't you see through my heart."_

_" Can't you see the volcano erupting from my love and seeeeeeeeeee."_

Samba collasped on her knees. Tears of worrow leaked from her eyes as she sang more lowly and smiled widely.

_" My love for you is an endless ocean."_

_" The way you make me feel... it's like nothing can ever hurt us."_

_" When I look into your eyes... I see a heroic man just waiting for me."_

_" For MEEEEEEEEEEEE!"_

" I hate to tell you this, Cooro," Kanellos said. " but this male here is a really good singer. Maybe you should compliment him."

" Shut up. Just don't say another wor-"

Something in Cooro's pants started vibrating. Cooro took out whatever was in his pants that was vibrating and held it in his right hand. The thing vibrating was a Magic Letter. At first sight, it looks like a normal, ordinary letter with a wax seal on the envelope. When the addressee performs a certain circle motion around the wax seal, they release a small, Magical hologram of the Cooro was talking to someone through a Magic Letter he'd always say the first word that popped into his mind.

" Speakith."

The holographic image of Cooro'solder sibling Nana showed up on the Magic Letter. She was smiling.

" Nana?" Cooro gasped. He wasn't in the mood to speak with her. " W-Why are you callin-"

" Hey, bro," Nana smiled on the Magic Letter. " I'm just calling to check in. So, are all the members of Fairy Tail as rambunctious as I told you?"

" No. They're twice as rambunctious. There was this Amazon girl, this girl with panda ears, this fat lard who's also in my school, this seductress, and this drunken lady

who was hitting on me. There is this author there that I adore, but he's also pretty much insane. They're all a bunch of loons!"

" Sounds like a real nuthouse. And I'm surprised one of them actually hit on you. Well you be able to make it to school tomorrow."

" Well, er, yeah. I may have to pull a few strings, but I think I can make it-"

" Samba, samba, samba!"

" Cooro..." Nana's face lit up with multiple red cruciforms Cooro indicated that Nana was very angry. Nana however still had her smile on her face. " Cooro, who was that?"

" Er, that was-"

" Samba!" Samba jumped on Cooro and tackled him to the ground. Samba shaked his head while he laughed happily touching Cooro, then he leaned his lips forward and prepared to kiss him. " Give me a kiss, darl-"

Cooro quickly got back up. He couldn't stand Samba anymore. He kicked her with his feet while he growled through his teeth. Nana watched the entire thing on the Magic Letter. When he was done, Samba's clothes were tattered showing off his curves and Cooro was breathing raspily. Samba however smiled and rubbed her tattered spots with much affection.

" Samba, samba, samba. That was pretty good, darling. But you forgot to spank me." Samba purposely fell down and raised her butt up so it was facing Cooro. " Spank me,spank me, spank me!"

" You're disgusting! Everything you say makes me want to puke! Just grow up and act like a real guy! But first, I better sew those spots up." Cooro pulled out a needle and thread. In a flash he sewed up all the open wholes with needles and thread. Samba looked at the spots where Cooro sewed, smiled. " There."

" Cute."

" SHUT UP!"

" Is this really the member who tried flirting with you, Cooro? I know you can't be picky with your looks and your short temper, but I really think you could do better."

" This freak isn't a member of Fairy Tail! And this freak is a-"

" Excuse me, you with the circlet."

" Samba?"

" Yes, you. Can I have a word with you?"

" Samba."

" Are you in any way attracted to my brother?"

" Samba! Yes. Yes! I'm so close with my darling! And after our little song, I'm going to marry him. We'll be one big happy famil-"

" Nooooooooooo!" Cooro's screamed so loud it silenced both Samba and Nana. Both sweated as Cooro's face burned the same color as a heated tomato. Both Nana and Samba were dumbfounded and Nana even sweatdropped.

" Are you sure you're all right with this, Cooro? You've been acting a little strange...er. Maybe I should buy a train ticket and come visit you."

" No, no, I assure you everything is alright. I'm just readjusting to my new home. I'll visit you when I can. Say hi to Canary, Kazu, and Roxie for me. Bye."

" Okay. Bye."

The Magic Letter ended as Nana's holographic image faded. Cooro turned his face back to Samba, clenched his hands, and made a face that said " I'm going to kill you". Sambahowever laughed as he flapped his bird winds and flew into the sky above Cooro. His wings were either made out of some kind of elastic, special fabric, or something that gave it the ability to allow Samba to fly.

" The games have begun, darling. Samba, samba, samba. The rules-samba, samba-are very simple. See those hats in your bag?"

" Yeah. What about them? Ack! Why is it suddenly so hard to breath."

" That's because in my world there is no air, and the gravity is the same as being on the moon. The only way to breath...is to do a dance with those cossack hats onyour head. The rules however are you can't use a hat from your opponents otherwise something bad will happen. Have I made myself perfectly clear?"

" I-agh- think so," Cooro replied. His voice was stiff from breathing in the thin artic air.

" Good. Let the games begin."

Samba took out a long yet thin piece of rope curled up in his dress. He whipped the rope at the bag with the hats, lifted the hats off the ground, and he placed one on his head while the rest he tied to the rope which was wrapped around his right leg. Samba did a hula dance with the cossack hat on him- gaining the momentum- he could breath again.

Cooro also joined in the dancing charade. Cooro didn't have very strong lungs. The most he could hold his breath for was two minutes underwater. Cooro placed the

cossack hat on his head-gaining momentum-he kicked his feet doing a Scottish highland dance. Finally, his dance was put too an end from Samba tooking out a small pouch, taking out a small pachinko ball, and flicking the ball at Cooro with the speed of a sniper rifle. The hat fell off Cooro and landed on the ground.

" I wasn't finished yet," Cooro grunted as his hat fell off. Above him Samba still had his hat on and continued doing a hula dance. " Why don't you come down here andfight me like a man?"

" No way," Samba laughed as he continued doing a hula dance. There's fifty hats in your bag. Why don't you hit me with that cannon-ooh- and then I'll see just howpowerful you are, darling."

" Fine. Have it your way." Cooro raised his right hand up and held it up to Samba. " I don't have a man, but taste the ball of my magi-huh?"

Nothing came out of Cooro's hand. Nothing. It was almost like he didn't have any magical powers. Cooro flapped his hands thinking it would help, but nothing became ofhis magic.

" W-Where's my cannon? I thought I figured this whole magic out. So where is it?"

" I don't know, master," Gia said behind Cooro's head. " Maybe it's all just a conspiracy."

" Gia!" Cooro reached his hands behind his head and grabbed Gia. He pulled the small cat out from behind his head and looked at her in her eyes. " What are you doinghere? And how come you always show up behind my back?"

Gia smiled and rubbed her whiskers against Cooro's face. " It's because of my special magic." Gia transformed into a small feather and floated down on Cooro's then transformed back into her original form. " I am a master of Aera magic. Wings, wind, feathers, flying, you won't find anyone better at using this kind of magic than me."

" Okay, but you really shouldn't have come here."

" Huh? Why not, Cooro? I thought I was helping out."

" No, you just made things worse; we're in a battlezone. And I fear both our gooses' are about to be cooked."

" Gooses? Where?" Gia's mouth drooled at the sound of the white bird. " Can we have the goose with fish? I love fish."

" Of course you do. Now..."

Cooro ran as fast as he could with Gia and the bag of cossack hats in his hands away from Samba. Behind him he could still hear the sound of Samba's laughing-samba,samba, samba- and how it made his heart beat with nervousness. Behind him, Samba ripped off three feathers from her circlet dress. A small gray circle illuminated from the feather's, and in their place came three small sawblades.

" How do you like my magic, darling? I can transform feathers into saw blades. My blades are so sharp they'll cut you in half. As much as I like you, darling, I'mafraid I'm gonna have to follow my ladies orders. Goodbye."

Samba threw her sawblades at Cooro. Cooro could hear them coming from how fast they were moving. He used up all his strength, jumped over the blades, but unfortunatelyhe was struck from behind by a pachinko ball. Though the balls were small they were however hard and Cooro coughed up blood as they hit his back.

" Guah!" Cooro coughed with blood dripping from his mouth.

Cooro fell on the cold, freezing white snow under his feet. He used his right arm to make sure Gia wasn't under him and used his left arm to pull out a hat. Coorocould only do one dance, as uncorgnated as it seemed, it may've been the only dance that would save him from passing out at the hands of the bitter cold. Cooro placedhis hat on his head and did...the Worm.

" Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle," Samba sang as she watched Cooro wiggle around like a fish above water. Cooro continued to wiggle for one minute, then Samba plucked three more of her feathers. " Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle." Three small gray circles illuminated from Samba's feathers and turned into three small sawblades. " Wiggle, wiggle,wiggle-I'm going to rip you in pieces!"

Samba threw the three sawblades at Cooro. Cooro quickly got up as nimbly as he could, his cossack hat falling off and vanishing into thin air, and jumped over the sawblades for the second time. Just then another pachinko ball was flicked at him and hit him behind his back. Cooro didn't cough up blade the second time. He just stood upand ran away from Samba as quickly as he was able.

" Cooro, run!" Gia shouted. She had her paws wrapped around his neck and was blown by the wind Cooro created as he acclerated. " You need to hide so you can counterattack."

" How? I can't use my magic. I'm just as useless as the snow."

" Don't say that. There must be one way you can stop her. Just think."

" How? If I turn around she'll cut me with those saw blades. And if I jump she'll hit me with those balls. I just don't see how I can fight her. Unless... "

The next time Samba threw sawblades at Cooro he jumped lowly to the right. The sawblades went right past him. Cooro then turned around and threw Gia towards Samba. As she was flying straight towards Samba she fired a barrage of razor sharp metal wings at her. Samba was able to fly out of the wings path, but her left wing of her circlet was ripped apart.

" Haha," Cooro laughed after Samba's left wing was ripped apart. " Didn't expect that did you, ya loon."

Samba was surprised by the bold mode Cooro had displayed, but he simply smiled as he rubbed the his smooth left hand. " Actually, I did."

" Huh?"

Cooro heard the sound of spinning metal behind him. He turned around and saw three small metal blades spinning towards him. With little time to act, Cooro jumped over the blades, and was hit by a pachinko ball behind his back for what was now the third time. Cooro was vexed by what just happened. Only he didn't have time to think as more sawblades came rushing towards him, and he got up and ran away as fast as he was able.

" Oopsies. I forgot to tell you one minor detail. See, when I throw my saw blades at a living target, they'll keep following that target until they hit human flesh.

The only way to stop that from happening is by jumping over them. Except when you do, I'll just hit you with my pachinko balls. With every strike you take, it'll takeyou less time to breath. All I have to do is keep hitting you with my balls until you completely run out of air. And when I win..." Samba held his arms out with a crazed look on his face. " You and I will be together forever. Forever 'n' ever!"

Cooro didn't know what to do. He couldn't jump because Samba would hit him with pachinko balls and he couldn't run because sawblades would chase after him and mostlikely cut off a limb or an optical part of his body. With little options...Cooro did the first thing he could think of.

" Umm, what did the shark say to the clown when it ripped off his right leg?"

" I don't know. What did the shark say?"

" He said, er, you taste Funny. Get it. Funny. Because clowns are suppose to be...funny."

" NOT FUNNY!"

Samba ripped out more feathers from her-actually, his circlet-and they transformed into sawblades from his magic to transform feathers into sawblades. Samba pulledthem back and threw them at Cooro. Cooro jumped for the countless time trying to avoid being cut by the blade, but was hit by a pachinko ball Samba flicked at him and hefell on the cold snow.

" Ow!" Cooro cried. The agony in Samba's attack was just too severe. " Why can't I use my magic? I thought I figured it out. I used it to save Gia so why

can't I...wait a minute. Gia? Can it be my magic only works when I think about helping someone other than myself?"

" Samba, samba, samba! Ooh, this is so much fun! Sawblades!"

Samba pulled out five feathers from her circlet. The five feathers turned into five small sawblades. Samba threw the sawblades at Cooro intending to rip him in pieces and keep his body parts as trophies. Out of Cooro's clothes came Gia, a small feather, who transformed into her small, whisky cat form. Two small metal wings came outof Gia's back.

" You leave my master alone, you bully!" Gia shouted. She was floating in the air using her wings to help her float. When the sawblades came rushing towards her, Gia slashed her wings at them and they bounced off. " You want to fight? I'll fight you for as long as I ca..."

Gia hadn't recovered from her injuries she received from Hex and Ox. All her power vanished. Her wings vanished and she fell in the waiting arms of Cooro. Cooro almost weeped when he shaked Gia but she didn't wake up. Samba laughed to herself- " samba, samba, samba"-and she turned three more feathers into sawblades and threw them a tGia.

" What's the deal? Why do people look down on me? All my life there has been no one special to me. I once wanted to have friends. It wasn't me who isolatedmyself from people it was people who isolated themself from me. There may not have been people who cared about me before, but there are people who're looking up to me now. And I will do everything to protect them."

Cooro's right hand transformed into a small cannon. The inside the of the cannon glowed bright green. A small ball made out of green light was fired out of the cannon. The small ball pushed into the sawblades, sparks skidded off, and the cannon ball headed straight for Samba's right wing. The right wing shattered on impact.

" No!" Samba screamed as he was about to fall towards the ground. He however created two sawblades using two feathers, and threw them underneath his feet. Samba floated as he was standing on the small sawblades. " Hahaha! That surprised me, darling. I didn't really think you had it in you. Guess I'm going to have to-"

" Take this, freak!"

Cooro threw a small snowball at Samba. Cooro had weak aim. His snowball zoomed past Samba on the far right of his body. Samba made a loud " Ooh!", turned a feather into a sawblade and threw it at the snowball. For some reason Samba was zealed to destroy the snowball.

" What are you smiling about? If you like snowballs, then here's some more, freak!"

Cooro threw three snowballs at Samba. Out of the three only one was going to hit Samba. Samba made a giant " Ooh!" and fired three balls at them. The snowballs

exploded on contact. After seeing the look Samba made Cooro picked up a small, fallen tree branch and threw it at Samba. He made a giant " Ooh!" before he flicked a pachinko ball and abolished the tree branch in half.

" He likes hitting moving targets? That's it. I know how to defeat this shrub at his own game."

Cooro turned around and ran away from Samba. With Gia in his hands, he ran for the nearest shelter he could find. Samba saw Cooro run like a vulture watching its pray. And the faster Cooro ran, the more Samba laughed.

" You can run but you can't hide! This is my world. I see everything that goes on in it."

Samba flew after Cooro. His sawblades moved on their own and floated where Cooro was running. He was attune. When she caught Cooro she could do whatever he wanted with him.


	6. Chapter 6

Samba chased Cooro to a small cave. The cave was small, musky, and inside were small stalagmites. There was only one way in and one way out. Samba knew this andlaughed to himself.

" Oh Cooro, you fool. Did you really think you could hide in here? Samba, samba, samba. I'm afraid there's no way to escape me."

Samba walked inside the cave. The inside of the cave was dark; there was no sunlight seeping in. The only thing Samba saw when walking inside was a rigged rocky walland a snowman decorated with a carrot nose, pebble eyes, pebble mouth, and small twigs for hair. In the center of the snowman was a bullseye target.

" Where could you have gone, my darling? Samba, samba, samba. Don't tell me you were able to find a way out of the cave. Samba, samba, samba. Ooh. But you left me a target to play with. How nice of you, darling. Samba, samba, samba."

Samba pulled out a pachinko ball. She steadied his fingers, looked right into the bullseye, and she flicked his pachinko ball right into the center of it. The snowman exploded on contact. Samba was proud of his accomplishment and paraded around the remains. Little did he know that someone was inside of it. Cooro, holding a solidified piece of ice that looked like a knife, jumped out and slashed his piece of ice at Samba.

" Take this, freak!"

Samba noticed Cooro just in time. He jumped up and used summoned two sawblades with his magic that helped him float above the ground. Samba looked down at Cooro and he smiled.

" So, that's where you were hiding, darling."

" Yep. It's a good thing you didn't use one of your sawblades. If you did that I'd be dead. And don't call ME darling!"

" It's a shame you missed, darling. That attack could've finished me. It's a shame you're too clumsy with your fingers."

" Oh, whoever said that I missed?" Cooro pulled up a sack with hats up. The bag was wrapped by a piece of rope, and half of it was cut off. " I got everything I need right here."

" Wait, what are you talking about..." Samba looked at her leg where her rope was suppose to be. Half of it was cut off and the bag was gone. Samba then looked back at Cooro-he must have both the bags because he cut the rope in half. But when Samba looked at Cooro he found Cooro was already gone. She turned around, looked at the entrance/exit of the cave, and she saw him running into the woods with both bags. Samba smirked. " I can still hold my breath for five minutes. And..." Samba laughed flamboyantly and held her hands over her cheeks. " I'll get you to marry me. Samba, samba, samba!"

XXX

Cooro didn't know how long he was running for. He already used ten of his cossack bags and did all kinds of weird dances trying to breath- raising his finger while spinning around in circles, clapping hands and kicking legs up, the Worm, doing a handstand and shaking his legs. He knew Samba didn't have much longer to breath. He was tearing the forest down with his sawblades, looking for Cooro, and wanting to take back his hats. But Cooro had the perfect plan for him.

Cooro ran with a bag still full of hats in his hand. Just when everything looked to be in the clear, a pachinko ball came out and hit the lateral malleolus behind his leg. If a person cut that part that person cut would lose his ability to walk. But all it did for Cooro was make him lose balance temporarily and fall into the snow.

" Your a tough man to find, darling. But I guess that's what I like about you. Samba, samba, samba." Samba came down using his sawblades to float. He came down, jumped off the sawblades, and walked over to Cooro. Samba grabbed Cooro by the scarf, the one thing he didn't like get touched, and she pulled his head out of the snow. " Let me in on a little secret. This location is just a game. If you pass out from the lack of circulation than you'll just wake up again. But if I use my blades on you, cut you, or any other type of weapon or magic... what do you thinks going to happen? So tell me...where are my hats?"

" T-There..."

Cooro pointed to a stump of a tree. Only a small part of the tree was still around, and snow covered the inside of it. Samba walked over to the stump, wiped away the snow, and before him he found a wet bag covered with snow. Samba opened the bag and took out a cossack hat. Samba danced around, hat in his hands, and skipped around the tree trunk, frolicking in the snow.

" There. You have your hat. Just let me pass out in peace, okay."

Samba stopped dancing. She turned around and gave him a snide little look. She flashed two sawblades out of her circlet and continued laughing at Cooro.

" Oh, darling, I'm afraid it's not that simple. You did take from me, darling. That's why I need to torture you. Until you pass out I'm going to cut you with my saw blades so you'll feel the peak of pain and cling to me like a loyal dog. But first..." Samba raised the hat over her head and prepared to lay it on her head. " I'm going to need just a little bit of air to think-"

The moment Samba placed the cossack hat on his head... it blew up in flames. The flames burned the top of Samba's head, burning his circlet, and then they diminished. Samba was left with nothing but a bald head. He cried his eyes out and shaked both his arms having a hissy fit.

" No! How could this be? Those weren't my bags, were they?"

" Heh." Cooro smiled. " It's a little too late for you to realize that now, birdbrain."

" If those weren't my hats then where are mine?"

" Can't you tell. They were with me all along." Cooro raised his bag. Around the bag was the same piece of rope cut off from Samba's leg before. " But don't feel too bad. I layered the top with some of my own hats. If you were to stick your hand in there and pull out a hat, well, you'd just pick up one of mine. And when you put it on your head...it would still go...Boom!"

" No! This isn't how it was suppose to be! You were suppose to lose and we could be together forever..."

Samba finally was down to his last breath. His eyes closed as he fell back and crashed on the ground. Cooro took out one of his cossack hats, looked at Samba while placing it on his head, and smiled as he did his one dance: Wiggle Your Arms.

" Sorry. I know I'm fine but I don't like guys. And believe me, that's the funniest thing I've ever said."

After wiggling his arms, building up circulation throughout his body, Cooro's hat vanished into thin air. He was victorious. That was what he believed. Samba wasn't moving, so he was the one who won. However, he wanted to make sure he was alright. It was just a formality. Samba may've been a crazy, cackling boy, but Cooro couldn't help but feel bad for him. The immobilization on his (Word) was gone, Cooro stood up, and he walked towards Samba.

" Don't make another move, Fairy Tail spy."

A small blue wormhole appeared behind Samba's back. Out of the wormhole Junichi appeared. Junichi grabbed Samba by his neck, smiled, and squeezed the bald servants neck as he looked into Cooro's eyes. Cooro stared at him in his eyes, and than he smiled.

" So, you managed to show up for the party, eh?"

" Of course. Did you really think beating me was going to be so easy?"

Junichi squeezed Samba's neck even harder as he raised Samba to his mouth and whispered into his ear. " Samba, I would like to start a game with this Fairy Tail spy. You better take me to where I want to go or I'll make you regret losing. I'll report it to Lady Khara."

" You know, I didn't want to hurt you since you're a bunny and I really do like animals, but there's something about you that makes me want to pull out every whisker in your furry little face."

" Take us to the game now!"

Samba's eyes glowed bright blue. Cooro, Junichi, and Samba were all teleported away from the woods and went right into a volcano. They were standing on black crusts, standing over an equator of lava that was about to erupt, and around their faces were noh masks. Noh masks looked like girl faces with red cheeks, that are carved from blocks of cypress and painted with natural pigments on a neutral base of glue and crunched seashell. For some reason the mask helped protect Cooro's eyes from the scorching smoke, and he was able to breath properly despite the ash plumes.

" Let me tell you the rules of this game," Junichi laughed while the noh mask covered his face. Under Junichi's feet was Samba. Unlike them he wasn't wearing a noh mask. " The name of the game is Push Junichi Off. It's simple. In order to win you have to push me off and let me fall into the volcano."

" Gee, that sounds like a complicated game," Cooro said sarcastically while listening intentially to Junichi's rules. " Do I have to learn it from writing?"

" I wouldn't get so cocky if I were you, spy. The rules are, if anyone else but Junichi falls down into the lava, then the game will be over. When I fall into the lava we'll return to reality where we're on Lady Khara's yard and I'll be unconscious. But if one of you fall in...let's just say there will be one less somebody when we return."

" What are you talking about, whiskers?"

" I'm saying, if you or Samba fall into the lava...you'll die." Cooro gasp when he heard what Junichi said, but Junichi laughed at the top of his lungs and held his hands over his chest trying not to let his sides split. The sound of his laughing was so terrible, so inconsederate, Coooro clenched his hands and prepared to give Junichi his full furry. " Let the games beg-"

" Cannon!"

Cooro raised his right hand up. It transformed into a small cannon and fired a small green ball of light at Junichi. Junichi crossed his hands trying to deflect the ball when it made contact. Cooro was surprised by this. He looked at his hand and moved his hand around as he looked at the cannon from different angles.

" B-But how. I thought my magic only worked when I was thinking of someone other than myself."

" That's correct, Cooro," Gia said. Cooro looked behind him and saw Gia flying using her Aera magic with wings behind her back. She didn't have a noh mask like Cooro and Junichi, but for some reason she was fine. " Your magic is working because you want to help Samba."

" What? That can't be true. I hate that bald, crazy cross-dresser. He's a guy and he does nothing but hit on me and sings music so bad it makes my head feel like it's going to explode."

" Maybe so, but you can't stand how the rabbit boy is treating him. Weren't you the same when you were young, Cooro?"

" Hmmmmm. Well, if this allows me to use my magic, than I don't care what's making it appear. All I just want to do is take this roughneck down. Let's fight, Gia."

" Yeah!"

Junichi had no trouble dealing with Cooro's energy ball. With one flick of his hair was the rabbit-bird humanoid able to make it explode. Junichi than started laughing to himself as he swished his hair back and forth.

" That was pretty impressive. Never have I seen magic quite like yours. But than again...no magic can compare to mine." Junichi rubbed his throat. He breathed in and out until his breathing sounded exactly like the afro servant Babo's. Junichi smirked as he took in a deep breath and prepared to use an attack. " Diver Magic! Transform my hairdoo into a drill!"

It was to Cooro's alarm that Junichi shouted the exact same way Babo shouted. And it was to his utmost surprise that Junichi's hair was raised over his head and started spinning around in circles. Junichi's hair became a giant white drill, much like the magic Babo used, and he drilled straight into the crusted rock he once stood on.

" H-How can he do that?" Cooro gasped when he saw Junichi tunneling towards him. " T-That's suppose to be Babo's magic."

Gia sensed a strange vibe digging right through the ground. Out of the ground came the smiling face of Junichi. Before he could drill right through Cooro's chest, Gia

swooped in using her wings and carried Cooro above the rock. She wanted to go higher however something was stopping her from flying any higher than the vent of the volcano. And even than she couldn't see anything above but utter darkness.

" Of course. This place is suppose to be like a game. And just like every game there's only a limited amount of places you can move. I just hope this volcano

doesn't erupt or else we'll be done for."

Cooro watched everything that happened below. Junichi drilled back into the rocks and emerged. He rocketed straight into the sky and was about to fall right into

boiling lava. Cooro watching Junichi about to fall got angry at him.

" You idiot! You're going to fall right into the lava!"

" That's what you think, Fairy Tail spy." Junichi rubbed his throat again. His drill transformed back into his hair as he did. Junichi breathed in and out. He kept

breathing until his breathing sounded like EO's, then he smiled. " Emotion Magic! Transform my thoughts into beams!"

Junichi was ice happy. As he was falling his forehead turned bright blue. A large beam was blasted out of Junichi's forehead, hit the surface of the ground, and froze

the lava beneath him into a pillar of ice. Junichi landed on the surface of the ice, unscaved, and was laughing to himself. The ice however wouldn't last forever. Soon

the heat of the lava would melt the ice and Junichi would fall right into it.

" That idiot doesn't stand a chance. Because of his carelessness all the rocks are destroyed. He doesn't have a place to land on."

Junichi rubbed his throat with his two fingers. He countinued breathing in and out. He kept breathing until his breathing sounded like Ox's, then he smiled. "

Teleportation Magic! Create Wormholes with my Fists!"

Ox punched the air in front of him. A small wormhole like the one's Ox created appeared before him. Junichi jumped right into the wormhole and disappeared as it closed behind him. The pillar of ice melted right into the boiling lava. Cooro watched the whole thing while holding onto Gia's legs and looked everywhere to find him.

" Where'd he go?" Cooro asked.

" I'm right behind you."

Cooro reacted to what Junichi said to him far too late. By the time Cooro managed to turn his head Junichi punched him right in his face. Cooro let go of Gia's small feet and fell towards the lava. Gia lost latitude, floated down from the peak of the volcano, and looked down to see her master falling, gasped.

" Cooro!"

" Cannon!"

Cooro transformed his right hand into a cannon. In the air Cooro weighed practically nothing. All he needed was a little force to move him in the right direction. One fire from his cannon pushed him towards the wall. Cooro smashed right into it, hurting his diaphragm, but otherwise was able to stop himself from falling by grabbing a piece of rock sticking out.

" It's not always easy being me. Now how am I going to get back up-"

" Oh Mr. Fairy Tail spy," Junichi said on the peak of the cannon. He was floating using two sawblades underneath his feet-Samba's magic. Gia was in trouble; he had a long wire stretched out to her neck. With just one twist he would be able to slice her feline face off. " You have to chose just who you're willing to save. The pet who looks up to you..." Cooro looked into Gia's eyes and saw she was crying. A tear dripped down Cooro's eyes as he looked into her saddened eyes. " Or the person who adores you."

Cooro looked at where Junichi was pointing. It was Samba he was pointing too. The ground underneath him was pool with lava and was about to melt away. The moment it melt Samba would fall into the river of lava and be burned alive. Cooro looked at both Gia and Samba and rubbed his hair from the adrenaline pumping into his veins.

" No! Stop this madness! Stop it!"

" I'm afraid it's too late for that, Fairy Tail member. In life you can only make one choice. So choice just what you care about. Let me see how callus you really are. Choo-"

Cooro surprised Junichi. He fired a small cannonball made out of green light and was pushed towards the crumbling rock. Junichi smirked at the sight of Cooro falling.

However, before Cooro's hands were able to grip the ledge of the rock, he spun around and pointed his cannon right at Junichi's face.

" Cannon!"

A small green cannonball of light was fired out of Cooro's cannon. The cannonball headed straight for Junichi. In that brief moment Junichi was scared of the ball of light and used his sawblades to float away. The moment he left, Cooro turned around, his cannon turning back into his arm, and caught the ledge of the rock before he fell right into the river of lava.

" Ah!" Cooro groaned when he squeezed his hands on the rock. The surface of the rock felt ten times hotter than sticking his hands on a burning stove. " Come on, getit together ol' boy. People are depending on you. So don't let them down."

Cooro used all his strength and lefted himself from the ledge to the ground of the rock. He ran up to Samba, grabbed his unconscious body, and ran around hoping he could find a narrow way to escape. After looking everywhere there was no such place he could find.

" No. You mean to tell me all my valiant efforts were for nothing. That's not cool. So not coo-"

" Cooro!" Gia shouted from above. Gia flew down using her small wings to guide her. " Quick, Cooro, jump! Grab onto my legs and I'll carry you to safety."

Cooro did like Gia said. He grabbed Samba by her left arm, carried her over to Gia, and he jumped off the crumbling rock grabbing Gia's leg's to keep himself in the air. He lifted Samba with his other arm. Below him he saw the giant piece of rock crumbling and falling straight into the lava. It burned in the lava, then exploded like a geyser-it went up and went right back down.

" Gia, we need to find somewhere to land, fast," Cooro exclaimed as he noticed Gia's paws were starting to get all sweaty.

" Ah, right."

Gia noticed a smooth surface of rocks jutting out of the volcano. Gia flew straight towards the rocks and landed on the smooth surface with Cooro and Samba. The moment Gia landed she heaved in and out as she was tired, dizzy, and about to fall flat on her back.

" You did good, Gia," Cooro said right before Gia fell on her back. " You did goo-"

" Surprise!"

Junichi appeared through a wormhole. The moment Cooro set eyes on him Junichi punched him right in his face. Junichi first punched him in his face, and then he punched him right in his stomach. Junichi had a laugh with every time he punched Cooro.

" Look at the little Fairy Tail member now. It's a shame you don't have any aptitude. Now I guess I'll just push you into the lav-"

" Before you do that..." Cooro said with his hand over his stomach and gasping. " I want to know how you're able to use everyone's magic. What kind of magic do you use?"

" Do you really want to know? Okay, I'll tell you. My magic is I can mimick other people's magic powers. It works only if I spend a day being around them. And in order to use it my voice has to be the exact same as the person I absorbed it from. My magic's the best. The only person who's able to beat me is Lady Khara. And once I defeat you, I think I'll absorb your cats' magic. With her magic, I can flew and bring terror to all the people in the world."

" That's not going to happen!"

Cooro jumped off the ground and punched Junichi right in the whiskers in his face. As he punched him Cooro grabbed Junichi by his whiskers and yanked three out.

Junichi cried in pain from his whiskers being plucked, grabbed the spot where Cooro pulled them, and he glared into Cooro's eyes. Cooro smirked at Junichi as he raised both his fists up.

" I'm going to teach you what it means to be in pain."

" But b-before you do that..." Junichi cried trying to avert Cooro's attention. " Can I hear a little bit about your childhood? I want to know just what made you the person that you are today."

" You really want to know about me? Okay, let me just get one thing clear. Just like all boys as a child I was born happy. But as time goes by...sooner you start to feel opressed."


	7. Chapter 7

Cooro was once a young, happy boy. Cooro wanted nothing more than to have friends. He struggled everyday, cooking, drawing, building up muscle, basically creating things he'd think his students would like, but no matter what he made no one seemed to like him. Cooro was making cookies. He had cookie dough in a pan, stuffed them in an oven, and waited twenty easy minutes. When they were done, Cooro placed oven mitts on his hands, opened the door and felt a convection heat wave blow in his face, and grabbed the pan with the cookies. He pulled them out to bring out whole wheat, heart shaped cookies.

" Their done!" Cooro shouted whole heartedly when he opened the door. " Their done! Their done! Their done!"

Nana walked in. Back when she was young Nana was a nutcase. She liked to pick fights, liked to see people suffer, and used a wooden bat. The bat she was carrying was smeared with blood from someone she hit in the face. Nana walked to the table, pulled the chair back, and crossed her feet on the chair dropping dirt on the counter.

" Hey, Cooro, what are we having for breakfast?" Nana scoffed as she scraped her feet on the table. " I'm hungry like a wyvern."

" Dinner will be ready shortly, Nana. Please see what I made for everyone in my class room." Cooro ran over to Nana and showed her his heart shaped cookies. Nana looked at the cookies and tilted her head. " These are cookies I'm going to give to everyone in my class so they'll be my friends."

" Cooro, Cooro, you try these stunts every time and they never work. Why can't you just accept there's no one in the school that wants to be your friend. If you want me to I could bash their faces in."

A tick of sweat rolled down the back of Cooro's neck when he saw the sadist look in her face. " Nana, why do you always have to be so scary? You'll never be able to open up a maid café if you're always this scary."

" Nana, you're going to be late for school, " Roxie said in her old cheery voice. Roxie walked in. Back then she was a really sweet girl. She had laces holding her hair in a ponytail, wore the attire of a red skirt and a white shirt with a red ribbon clipped around her neck. Roxie skipped to Cooro and rubbed the little scamps head. " Hey there, buddy. Anything I can do to put a smile on your face?"

" Roxie!" Cooro held his hands out and hugged Roxie around her chest. He buried his small head in her stomach and smiled. " It's good to see you, Roxie."

" It's good to see you too, Cooro. I really missed you..."

Roxie had what was called a dissociative identity disorder . Whenever she heard loud noises her minds would do what some would call glitch. Roxie took out a pencil from her skirt, spinned around, and threw it at a fly that was flying behind her. The pencil ripped through the fly's right wing and it fell to the ground. The moment it stopped buzzing Roxie returned to normal.

" Roxie, is everything alright? You seem to be a little edgy today."

" Huh? Oh, it's nothing, Cooro. I'm just a little bit stressed out with school is all. When you reach my grade you'll understand the stress I'm going through."

Canary and Anzu walked in. Just like every day Anzu had her arms around Canary. Anzu was very shy of people and couldn't be near anyone other than her friends-Cooro, Nana, Roxie, Canary-and she didn't know if she'd ever recover. Some call it social anxiety.

" Hey Cooro, my little man," Canary scoffed at Cooro. " Cookies today? Don't get me wrong, I'm glad one of you can cook, but maybe you should think of something with a little more nutrition. Wouldn't want any of you to get fat, would you?"

" It's okay, Canary. I plan to share it with everyone in my class."

" Why? Why would you give your classmates cookies?"

" Because I want to have friends."

" Aren't we good enough for you? Not many kids your age get to have three hot older girls like us for friends." Canary grabbed the shy Anzu and the innocent Roxie and pulled them to her cheeks. She let them sandwich hug her. " See. Aren't we just the cutest?"

" You are. But I want friends my own age. Well, I'm off to school."

XXX

Cooro was both nervous and excited whenever he went to school. His school was jam packed with students. Cooro kept his cookies in a plastic container in both his hands. Cooro saw a group of kids talking together and walked towards them.

" Hi guys," Cooro said as he handed the container of cookies to them. " Let's be friends."

All the students scoffed when Cooro mentioned the word "friends". They all walked away from him. Cooro didn't know why they would do such a thing, but he just moved to the next one.

Cooro would have to go inside soon. He didn't know why but he was facing a dilemma where nothing he did seem to work; nobody wanted to talk to him. Nobody... except the big, strong, hateful bully Timon. Timon had red hair the color of fire, a red jacket that squeezed his ribs, and torn jeans like they were cut by a Exceed from Extalia. Timon smirked at Cooro preparing to clobber him with his fists.

" Any last words, scarf head?"

Cooro held his plastic container up to Timon and smiled. " Would you like a cookie?"

XXX

Cooro had a bag of ice on both his left and right cheek. Cooro had been injured by Timon. He ached all over, his face felt like it was broken, and the only thing that soothed the pain was holding the bracelet with teeth and pearls his father gave him. Nana was the one holding the ice to Cooro's cheeks.

" I just want you to know I saw this entire thing coming," Nana said while she pushed on the ice. " And like I said, if you want I can beat this guy up for you, little brother."

" I didn't want you to hurt anyone. I just wanted to have friends. I just thought that if I gave them a little food they would warm up to me. But now I don't think anyone will ever be friends with me."

" I see. Have you ever heard of a fish called the Rainbow Hane-Sakana?"

" No. I heard of Hane-Sakana, but I've never heard of a Rainbow Hane-Sakana. What are they like?"

" First, we all know that regular Hane-Sakana live only in the Earth Land, but Rainbow Hane-Sakana travel somewhere close to here this kind of year. Some say that those who eat the meat of a Rainbow Hane-Sakana will find everlasting joy."

" I-I don't understand. I heard that the meat of a Hane-Sakana is suppose to taste nasty. Some pay daredevil's to eat it but even they wouldn't do it."

" Yes, but the meat of the Rainbow Hane-Sakana is different. When their born their dropped into a mystifying water that cleans their meat. Some say the taste of it is so plentiful it can make your heart melt with a single bite. If you feed that meat to anyone they'll become your friend for sure."

" Nana, will you be helping me find this Rainbow Hane-Sakana?"

" No. It's not that I don't want to help you, Cooro, but this is something you have to do yourself. The name of the place they migrate to is Earthora Mountains. Good luck trying to find it, Cooro."

XXX

Cooro followed Nana's directions and reached the bottom of Earthora Mountains. The mountains were made of brown sedimentary rocks. The top biggest mountain, the one the Rainbow Hane-Sakana's migrated to, it was 20,000 ft large.

There was an open crevasse in the terrain, lenticular bad clouds halfway up the mountain, and air so thick it could stop a person from breathing. Rapid ascent would cause altitude sickness. If the mountain couldn't end his life, the vicious animals hibernating in them would.

" This is it," Cooro thought. " There's no turning back now. I must get that Rainbow Hane-Sakana so people will actually want to be near me-"

Something fell out of the sky. The thing that fell nearly crashed on Cooro, but he caught it before it landed. The thing that fell turned out to be a girl. Her hair was lavender purple like the color of a petunia, she wore a green one piece dress, ribbons were both on her dress and wrapped behind her hair, and her eyes were silver like the color of the sky. Cooro and the girl both looked each other in the eyes, and then she smiled.

" Hi," the girl smiled after Cooro just caught her. " That was a long fall. Thanks for catching me."

" Uh, why were you falling?" Cooro asked. " Did you jump off the mountain's?"

" Uh-huh. It was so much fun. I want to do it again."

" You shouldn't. Falling from that height will kill you. And even if you did survive it could break your bones, or if your head hit the dirt it could cause brain damage. You should really be more careful, little girl."

" Hehehe."

" Huh? Why are you laughing?"

" Hehehe. Your funny. I like you."

Cooro's cheeks tinted red like the color of a rose when he saw the girl smile. " Uh, thanks. Hey, I'm trying to reach the top of the mountains. Would you like to come with me?"

" Sure. Oh, that's right, I didn't introduce myself. My names Aōyami. Aōyami Raggera."


End file.
